Crona's First Halloween
by Flailingkittylover
Summary: It is the swordsman's first Halloween experience, and Maka wants to make sure it will be one he will always remember. Unfortunately for both her and Crona, her wish is shared by two troublemakers. Rated for language and suggestive content. Takes place after the anime.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm feeling…seasonal. So I couldn't resist making up a story for Halloween, especially since there aren't many out there with Crona.**

**This story will only be three chapters long, so for those who worry about lack of updates on my other story, don't worry, they're in progress. My attention has just been on this story for awhile.**

**In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, credit goes to Atsushi Okubo.**

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><p>Maka tucked a strand of golden wheat behind her ear as she completed the final touches of her costume. She placed the last prop upon her head and lifted herself from her chair, examining her image in a nearby mirror. After her inspection was complete, Maka swiped a hand over the wrinkles of her peplos garment and collected her cloth wrapped arms in her front, feeling prideful of her appearance.<p>

Eager to get a second opinion, Maka reached for her door and opened it, her eyes suddenly being met with a wall of thick darkness. She collected her brows together in puzzlement of the unlighted apartment, wondering if a power outage had occurred. But that was not possible, as the light from her room and the radiant orange beaming through the window of their living room countered that deduction.

But by knowing her lazy partner, she knew he probably didn't change the faulty lightbulb in their kitchen ceiling before it burned out …again.

While exhaling, Maka carefully advanced to the kitchen through the dark, and flipped on the light switch once her destination was reached. She squinted from the sudden awakening of the incandescent ceiling lights, and pouted at the small blips of dying flashes the bulb puttered out.

After their night of fun was over, she made a mental note to make Soul change that bulb under penalty of his candy stash being donated to the animals at the dump.

As the scythe meister turned her body to exit the kitchen, an open, furred maw inked with red greeted her face, a guttural roar ripping through the air and fanning her hair backwards.

Unimpressed, the lowered-brow Maka shoved her book into the creature's mouth, gagging it as the spine harshly clocked against the thin lining of the mouth's esophagus.

"_Jesus!"_ Her assaulter's muffled voice exclaimed. The shredded suit monster staggered backwards, wrapping one of their clawed hands over their still open muzzle. "What the hell was that for?! You hit my damn teeth!"

"What do you think?" Maka answered, lounging the spine of her book on her shoulder. "For so badly failing in scaring me, I felt at least a punishing jab should be given." She smirked mischievously. "But just because you're even more of a mutt now doesn't mean you can come close to scaring me."

A growl left the masked jump-scarer. "I told you, I'm not a mutt." He grasped the furry skin of his neck, and yanked the mask up over his head, revealing an irritated Soul. "I'm a werewolf. There's a big difference." He bounced his frightening monster mask up and down by its black-haired mane. "See? Or do I need to put the mask closer to your face? I understand if your Asian blood is getting to you again. It wouldn't be the first time."

Maka was unphased by such a common insult from her weapon, and crossed her white cloth-wrapped arms. "Well, I personally don't see a difference. As your costume is so like your real self."

Soul's frown deepened, a vein throbbing in his temple. "Oh yeah? And what are you supposed to be? Some goody-two shoes librarian?"

Maka matched Soul's frown with her own. "You've got to be kidding me. My costume is so obvious!" She pointed to her gold-painted leaf tiara and the barn owl stitched on the fabric of her shoulder. "Not only does my outfit give away the time frame, but the owl should seal the deal. I'm Athena!"

Soul responded with a blank face, blinking multiple times. "Never heard of her."

"Never-!" Maka prepared to go off on another "importance of education" lecture, then remembered she was conversing with her lazy weapon who found lifting a textbook, let alone a book on Greek mythology, was some form of needless and strenuous arm exercise. So she decided to save her breath.

Sighing, she looked to the clock in their living room, seeing the minute hand was past 6:30. Impatient fingers tapped against her folded arms as her eyes darted to the clock and the apartment door.

Soul breathed out a lounging gust as he dropped his werewolf mask on the kitchen table. He slumped into a seat and rested his boots with protruding furry toes on the table's edge. "Ease up already, Maka. It's not like all the candy in the city is going to disappear if we're a little late. They'll all get here when they get here."

"I know."Maka responded. "But I'd rather get out there now before all the good stuff is taken."

Soul formed an expression of thought as his fuzzy claws moved to his chin, scratching the one part of his body that wasn't protruding with fake, brown hair. "You know, seeing as how we're all sixteen…can we even keep going trick-or-treating? I thought the end of line was like, fifteen."

"If that twenty-five year old couple we saw earlier can get candy by dressing up as Aunt Flow and a tampax, I'm sure we can too."

Soul shuddered, shaking his head. "Out of…._all_ the things a person can dress up as…"

"_Don't _even ask me."

"Yeah, gladly."

A series of knocks rapped against the front door, catching Soul and Maka's attention. Maka told her weapon's annoyed face that company was here as she slapped his dirty boots off the table. The scythe responded by puppeting her nagging voice with his hand and blabbing with his eyes crossed. His meister challenged his mocking by flinging his werewolf mask into his face, shutting him up as she walked to the door.

As Maka opened the entrance to her apartment, her ears were assaulted with a sudden, sharp outcry. All her eyes were able to detect was a flash of purple before her body and arms became trapped by an attaching weight. The shrieks grew higher in pitch as the squishy body held her tighter.

"Maka~~!" A cheerful Patty sang. "You look so cute in your costume~!" The jubilant weapon detached from Maka to look at her fully, allowing the meister to see Patty was wearing a revealing purple cheerleader outfit that scarcely concealed her chest and thighs. "You look like a fancy owl tamer!"

Soul snickered while Maka shot him a dirty look, snarling, "Remember, Soul. You're making the goddess of wisdom upset. And I just happen to keep a lot of my wisdom in my _books_. So are you really that eager to receive my brain-racking knowledge?"

Her snide weapon shut his trap upon hearing her disguised threat, and Maka nodded her head in approval of his silence.

"Goddess of wisdom?" a curious voice asked. A tall blonde clad in a similar cheerleading outfit stepped through the door to stand by her sister. A finely plucked eyebrow was arched in wonder. "You mean like one of those gods from Rome or something?"

"Athena is from Greek mythology." Maka politely corrected while smiling. "But Rome does have their own version of a goddess of wisdom."

"A Greek god, you say?" A gentlemanly voice asked, the sound of shoes clomping into the room. "Well, it looks like I'll have an interesting replacement during this holiday."

Maka's face lit up as her friends started to pour into her residence. "Kid! What did you-"

Maka's words died in her throat as the teenage God stepped past his weapons, her eyes bugging from her skull. Soul's stifling snickers became more strained as a new costume entered his sights, covering his mouth with his fuzzy glove again.

"What's so funny?" Kid questioned.

"I think he finds your choice of costume more humorous than we did." Liz responded, an amused corner smile curving her lips.

The young Shinigami peered at the eldest weapon with a raised eyebrow. He turned his head, his antennae protruding from his headband bouncing as he inspected his regular suited form, and the set of majestic insect wings protruding from the sides of his shoulder blades. "I don't see what's so amusing about a butterfly costume. There are many more outfits on the streets that are more fitted for humor than mine."

A sharp sound vibrated the back of Soul's throat, the battle to hold in his laughter growing harder. "Dude, it's a _butterfly _costume; a costume for little girls. You could have chosen a much cooler Halloween choice than that. Like a Grim Reaper outfit, or a vampire."

Kid humphed at Soul's remark, crossing his arms like a pouting child. "Absolutely not. If I wore a Grim Reaper costume, I would be required to hold a scythe. But I would need to hold two scythes, as only then will it be symmetrical. So how can I possibly carry my two treat bags in each hand if they are occupied with two scythes? It's far too much work!"

Soul blinked while the teenage Shinigami's eyes twinkled like stars, his hands lifting up to the incandescent heavens while his butterfly wings gracefully showed their black and orange patterns. Neurotic admiration lilted his voice as he spoke, "Besides, if I were to be the halving line of this butterfly costume, I would make it perfectly symmetrical! I would be an icon of symmetry at its utmost perfection! They had no number eight costumes at the store, but this is so much better! Perfect symmetry shall gift this night that's infested with misshapen gowns, uneven hairstyles, and far too thick makeup!"

Maka stared in astonishment while Soul burst into laughter, Patty joining in with the scythe while Liz shook her head.

It was typical, really. As an obsessed divinity like Kid would choose such an outfit, not caring for the potential ridicule that could be placed upon him for it. The choice was…odd. Embarrassingly odd to be matter of fact. But she was glad that a simple costume could make one of her friends so happy…

She just hoped Kid wouldn't realize that if he truly was the halving line of his butterfly outfit…the left side would not match the other, simply due to the inconsistent streaks in his hair. But she knew better than to bring it up. And if she knew anyone else in her apartment well enough, they knew as well as her not to mention it.

"So," Kid began, looking to Maka. "Are we all ready to go?"

"Not yet." Maka replied. She worriedly looked to the clock again as she closed her apartment door. She wondered if a certain swordsman was able to make it through the crowds of people flocking the streets outside. "Crona isn't here yet, and neither are Tsubaki and-"

The door flung open with a mighty kick in front of Maka, the edge nearly grazing her nose as a loud voice yelled, "_The Great Black Star is here_!"

The sandaled foot that burst open the door and was raised in the air smacked onto the ground below, the image of a tan meister donned in a half-chest exposing chiton making himself known. He smashed a strong fist to his muscled breast, barking, "Look upon your God, as this is the only time of year when you may gaze upon my true for-!"

Blood flew into the air as a book dug into Black Star's face, projecting him into the wall of the hallway outside Maka's door. Silence floated between the group members as a fellow Greek costumed meister seethed heatedly.

"You idiot." Maka growled. "You could have hit someone by doing that! Like _me_! Are you that stupid as to not think of the consequences before you go kicking a door open?!"

Black Star's body fell out of the large crater in the wall, blood oozing from his mouth as he lay limply on the ground. The sound of wood clopping against the ground was heard, and a worried Tsubaki revealed herself.

"What happened?" She asked.

"It's Black Star." Soul commented, digging a plastic fingernail from his furry gloves into his ear. "So the real question is, what didn't happen?"

Tsubaki sighed, her face embarrassingly solemn as she looked down to her wooden geta sandals. "I see…I'm sorry about that. I tried to catch up to him, but he left me in the dust when we made it to this floor." She laughed nervously as her feet shifted on the floor. "I forgot how hard it is to run in these."

Maka waved off the ninja weapon's apologies, wiping the blood off the spine of her book on a glaring Soul's shredded suit. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you can control him."Her eyes narrowed as she gazed at Black Star, scanning his body to find a golden laurel rest on his head and a familiar lightning symbol on the clamp of his chiton. "But I can't say I'm surprised that he chose Zeus for his costume choice. I almost feel embarrassed for just wearing a costume that's related to him."

"Be lucky he isn't wearing that open rear patient costume he wore last year."Soul said. "He already spouts enough crap from his mouth, I don't need to see anymore coming out of that fake, shit-spewing ass he had too."

Maka shuddered in disgust, and her eagerness to get off the irritating subject that was Black Star rose. She aimed her attention away from the twitching ninja meister, and scanned Tsubaki's costume, admiring how the floral patterns of her red kimono and neatly tied up hair matched the image of a Geisha girl.

"You look really pretty, Tsubaki." Maka complimented kindly. "I guess Halloween is a good chance for you to get back into your Japanese roots, isn't it?"

Tsubaki beamed a lovely smile to the scythe meister, intertwining her fingers in front of her. "It is. I don't get many chances to wear outfits like this. It feels nice to be back in touch with home, even if it's only for a day."

"You can be in touch with home everyday if you serve me!" A screeching voice rang out. "It would be nice to have someone fan me while this dolt puts food in my mouth. So what do you say? You up for the job, servant girl?"

"R-Ragnorak!" A timid voice chided. "D-Don't talk like that to Tsubaki!"

"Well what the hell else is a Geisha girl for if not to serve you food and drinks?! What? You more into the entertainment part of a servant girl's duties than the feeding? Or is that just the same shit to you?"

"T-That's disgusting! O-Of course I'm no-_OW_!"

"_Liar!_ You're just saying that because the wrong chick is-!_"_

"Ragnorak, t-that's enough!"

Maka's eyes brightened as the struggle outside her apartment door subsided. She watched as Tsubaki politely warded off mumbling apologies, coaxing the final piece of their troupe that was rubbing a neglected patch of hair through the doorway.

At first, Maka was elated, a wide smile decorating her face as he entered. But her happy expression morphed into puzzlement as she noticed the swordsman was still wearing his black robe, not a costume like the rest of their group wore.

Maka inclined her head to the side, asking, "Where's your costume, Crona?"

A quizzical expression came over Crona's face. "C-Costume?"

Maka smiled softly, remembering Crona's lack of understanding or knowledge toward holidays. "Costumes are fake outfits people wear to look like someone or something."Maka pointed to herself, Soul, and the other members of their group. "That's what we're all wearing, as well as every other kid that's running around in the streets."

Crona's brows gathered, realization dawning in his eyes." That's what those people outside were wearing?"

"What did you think they were?"

"…I-I thought there was some kind of madness outbreak happening. B-Because a lot of the costumes and people I saw looked, um-v-very..._different_."

Maka giggled while shaking her head. "No, silly. It's a holiday where you can dress up as whatever you want. Those kids are just following the dress-up custom."

"If that's the case then we don't need a costume!" The lounging weapon on Crona's head screeched. "Crona may look like a spineless wimp, but with me, he's the scariest motherfucker out of all you wanna-bes! We're genuinely scary!" A small hand pointed to Soul. "We're not some fake version of scary like baby shark over there!"

"_Hey!"_Soul snapped.

The sword turned to the Thompson sisters and their meister while cackling, "And we're _much_ scarier than a stupid butterfly and skanky cheerleaders. What, you girls claim you're scary because you threaten to give your victims gonorrhea?"

Kid narrowed his eyes while Liz verbally retaliated Ragnorak. Patty smirked evily, cracking her knuckles while asking if the demon really wanted to know why they were scary.

"Ragnorak," Crona frowned toward his weapon. "S-Stop being mean to everyone. It's not nice to be rude to our h-hosts."

"Well these _hosts_ don't even have any chips or dip out to feed us. How fucking rude is _that_?" The demon turned to Maka. "Just what kind of food extravaganza is this, tiny-tits?!"

"Ragnorak!" Crona glowered harshly. "I told you to stop calling everyone mean names!"He lifted his hands to punish a complaining Ragnorak, but Maka placed her hand on his shoulder, shaking her head.

"It's alright, Crona." Maka comforted, ignoring Ragnorak's continuous spouts and comments. "We're used to him by now. So don't worry." She kept her smile as her eyes inspected his body's frame, wondering something. "But we can't just let you go trick or treating without a costume…" She turned to Soul. "Hey, where did you put your costume from last Halloween?"

A curious white brow rose, an amused smile curving the scythe's lips. "It's in my closet." He looked to Crona and his smirk pulled wider. "And the props should be somewhere in there too."

Maka nodded and threaded her fingers through Crona's, guiding him toward the hallway while warding off his polite rebuttals with undeterred persistence.

This was his first Halloween ever, and she was going to do everything she could to make sure it was going to be one he would remember.

Once they reached Soul's room, she heard Ragnorak mutter something about scandalous alone time but Crona smacked the weapon's head before he could finish. The weapon scoffed before submerging back into his meister, and Maka began to investigate her partner's closet.

She ripped out dirty clothes blocking her path, and kicked them toward the door so she could make Soul clean them later. After minutes of digging through the mounds and fingering through the folded clothes in Soul's closet dresser, Maka finally found her target, and quickly fished it out.

"Here you go!" Maka chirped, pushing the clothes to Crona. "Soul got it at the last minute, and the store only had sizes that were bigger on him. So I don't think you'll have a problem fitting into it."

Maka searched for the costume's prop as Crona inspected the black jacket he held. His curious eyes blinked rapidly as he examined the set of chained pants that came with it. His nervous anxiety became more prominent as Maka pulled out the small, plastic guitar, hat, and a long, curly wig that came with the costume.

"And here's the rest!"She turned to Crona. "I'll leave you alone so you can dress up. Just tell me when you're finished and we'll put them on." She flashed him a comforting smile. "You can leave your robe on the bed until we come back."

As Maka looked at Crona, she saw a display of fearful concern etch his face. His fingers fumbled on the fabric of the costume and a curtain of hair hid his eyes as he lowered his head.

Worry infiltrated Maka and she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Crona? What's wrong?"

He shifted underneath her touch, small teeth biting his lower lip. "M-Maka…i-if I wear this…," An audible gulp launched down his throat. "If I wear this...I-I won't look scary, will I?" His lowered head fell farther down. "I-I don't want to look more scary…t-then I already look like."

Maka smiled softly, shaking her head in refusal. "Don't worry, Crona. This is one costume of Soul's that isn't meant to scare. "An assuring smile stretched wide across her face as obsidian orbs met her leaf green. "And believe me when I say, you aren't scary. If anything, you just might be giving Soul a run for his money if you wear this."

Crona blushed and his expression relaxed, but the tension underneath her touch was still present. Uncertain eyes drifted to the wig and top hat she held. He winced as he murmured, "I-I don't mind the guitar too much…but I d-don't have to wear those, do I?"

"Not if you don't want to. I won't make you."

The rigid muscles beneath her palm eased, and a ghost of a smile twitched on his lips. He held the clothes tighter to him, responding as he looked at them, "O-Okay then…I-I'll wear this."His eyes met hers for a brief moment, then fled away. "Thank y-you."

"No problem! Just tell me when you're ready. We'll wait in the kitchen until you're done."

The costumed meister left Crona to change in peace and walked down the hall to join her friends in the kitchen.

"You find it alright?" Soul questioned, his clawed hands behind his head.

"Yes, he's changing into it now."

"What's he going to be?" Tsubaki asked.

"You'll see when he gets out." Maka smiled, slapping the thick arm of Black Star to get his rear end off the table.

"Alright then. But since we're on the topic of what we're all wearing." Soul started, peering over to the sisters. "I take it this a free show you're offering? Or are dollar bills involved?"

Patty brandished a smirk as she rose a challenging brow, and Liz folded her arms with a hip tilted. "Even if we were dressed as strippers, I'm insulted you would offer dollar bills. You taking us for cheap entertainers?"

"_Fine_. I'll make it five bucks."

"Expensive women like Patty and I don't do five buck offers, Soul. Not unless you want a show to be really crappy quality."

"Well, Soul may need to pay, but I sure as hell don't!" Black Star bellowed, resting his hands on his knees. "If your almighty superior asks for a dance, then you'll dance!"

Liz's bored expression twitched. "Black Star, not only would we never do a show for free, but just for you, we'll make it expensive enough so you can _never_ afford it."

"Heathen! I'll send my forces after you if you don't!"

"_Ha!_ Like who?"

A thick finger pointed to Maka, and he directed it back to the sisters. "Like Maka! If you deny me, I'll be forced to allow her to show you the power of the lightning God's army!" Black Star jumped on the table, an animated finger still extended out. "So go, Maka! Your father is counting on his favorite daughter! Reel them in and punish them with your chastity belt of doo-!"

Maka plunged her book into ninja meister's undefended crotch, his face's features scrunching tightly in pain. He fell from his standing stance to the floor below, holding his groin for dear life as he floundered about.

"I don't even know whether to be shocked that Black Star knows anything about Greek mythology…or just to stay angry." Maka grumbled, rubbing her temples to relieve stress. Laughter resounded all around her.

"Well…as I've said before," Tsubaki smiled uncertainly. She crouched down next to her flinching meister. "He does study when we don't see it."

"I was hoping that was in regards to the school's textbooks…but knowing him, it's better than nothing."

As small talk continued, and Black Star recovered from his treasured sword nearly being bent, Maka felt a soft hand tap her shoulder.

She turned to find a bashful Crona looking down at the floor behind her. A smile decorated her face as she saw his coltish limbs fit inside the zipped-up leather jacket perfectly, hidden almost as well as his robe did to him. The chained rocker pants hung perfectly off his hips and he tapped one of his cuffed boots tip against the other. His fingers dug into his jacketed arm as he waited for her critique.

"Perfect!" Maka admired, clapping her hands together. She took a hold of his shoulders and guided the anxious meister in front of her. "Take a look, everyone. Here's our last addition!"

Curious eyes drifted to Crona, and he shifted in his spot. His cheeks blazed. Patty giggled while commenting how cute he appeared while Soul gave him a confident smirk, giving him a thumbs up. The others smiled in approval and Black Star launched himself up from the ground to inspect the sword meister.

The costumed lightning god pouted overdramatically, scratching his chin. He looked to Maka, a theatrical frown on his face. "What is this? Some kind of rebellious tactic against me, Maka?" Black Star crossed his arms. "I'm disappointed in you! Father does not approve of you being with this rebel rocker-!"

A book sank into Black Star's gaping trap. Maka's scornful eyes glinted as she hissed through clenched teeth, "Drop the act, Black Star, and whatever else you have planned to say next. Or else I'll do more than just aim for your crotch and face. Next time, I just might get more creative."

Sweat slid down Black Star's face as he stared at her. He flung his arms about to shoo her away, spitting out the drool covered book as he looked away, grumbling, "B-But I suppose I can make an exception…but just for tonight!"

Maka rolled her eyes and directed her attention back to fiercely blushing Crona who kept his gaze away. A hand drifted to her cheek as she examined him. "I think you're only missing one thing." She swiped a set of black sunglasses on a nearby table and let it idle upon a flushed Crona's forehead. She put her hands back together once the image was complete. "There we go! Now it's perfect!"

"Hey," Soul began. "I can understand him needing my costume, but why my expensive shades? Doesn't he have enough?"

"Because you could do with a lot less junk laying around the apartment and Crona needs them to seal his costume's image." Maka quipped, helping Crona maneuver the plastic guitar onto his back. She turned to the swordsman, smiling brightly. "Right?"

He ducked his red face as he fiddled with the guitar's strap across his jacketed chest. His smile was small as he nodded.

A black cloud sprang from Crona's back, his weapon partner's peculiar head drifting down to examine his meister. "Well, can't say I'm at least a little disappointed. And here I was hoping Miss Bossy Pants would be able to get you into a fairy princess costume. If you ask me, that's much more suitable than looking like some hard rocker."

"We'd never put Crona in a princess outfit." Maka glowered.

"And why not? You fearful he'll look more fucking majestic than you?"Ragnorak grabbed the gangly, jacketed limbs from a protesting Crona. "Come on, he's got the pink hair, skinny body, and everything else that resembles a sissy! He'd look perfect in a tutu or a dress! I'm telling you, you're depriving him of some seriously good cathartic time on what he is here! He'd be the best damn princess ever!"

Maka's scowl turned harsher and she yanked Crona's limbs out of Ragnorak's grasp, claiming he'd get no Halloween candy if he continued to act such a way. He struggled in her clutches and finally silenced when being threatened with a quick meeting with a dictionary.

"If this is going to be a thing the whole night…maybe its better we start now." Liz sighed. "I already have to take care of one fussy kid, I don't know how long I can take dealing with another."

"Sounds good to me." Soul said, lifting himself up while grabbing his werewolf mask. "Free candy for three months, here I come."

"Alright, let's get raiding!" Black Star shouted, running outside the door with Tsubaki following after him.

Maka exhaled as her friends cleared her apartment, the only remaining member being the nervous swordsman beside her. "Well, then." Maka started. She picked up a spare pillowcase from the couch nearby and smiled as she handed it to Crona. "Are you ready for your first Halloween, Crona?"

Crona looked at the bag hesitantly, the foreignness of such an event clear on his face. But as he looked to her, a tiny smile pulled at his lips and he took the bag, one hand still holding his arm. "I…I think so."

"Good!"Maka took his hand, and helped guide his stumbling body toward the door. "Then let's go!"


	2. Chapter 2

**For some reason I thought this would be good to have as a friendship story...but then I thought, nahhhhhhhhhhh. Romance between these two is something I just can't resistxD**

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><p>Maka and her resonance team cruised the cobbled streets of Death City, dodging the many costumed children that zipped by. Jack-o-lantern lights hovering above zip-lined across the gaps between buildings, highlighting the intersections and noisy plazas with a bright orange glow.<p>

As the group maneuvered through the crowd-riddled streets, Maka felt Crona's hand shake in her grasp. His attention was glued to the ghoulish decorations on houses and their lawns; he gulped toward the cobwebbed cotton stretched over the windows and gates that bore large spiders resting on them. Crona jerked when a robotic skeleton resting in a coffin launched up toward him, letting out a high-pitched cry to match the decoration's fierce roar.

"It's okay." Maka comforted. She turned her head to face the shivering Crona cowering behind her. She gave him a warm smile. "That skeleton is just a Halloween decoration some people like to put out. They may be scary, but they won't hurt you."

Crona looked at her hesitantly before turning his gaze back to the skeleton, almost as if he was considering believing her or not. Only until the skeleton retracted back into its coffin and settled into a fake sleep did he finally believe it was over.

The swordsman slowly revealed himself from his hiding spot and Maka placed a soft hand on his shoulder in promotion to move forward.

"Alright!"Black Star shouted. His laurel decorated head turned from side to side as he scanned the nearby houses. "So, which houses do you think has the best loot? I want my hoard bag to look like Santa Claus's sack on Christmas Eve once we're done!"

"I hear the west side gives out king-sized candy." Soul replied behind his mask. "I remember Kilik saying he and his group were even given money by them last year."

"Well, then that's where we're headed!"

Black Star turned on his heel to bolt toward the wealthier side of Death City, but Maka caught the collar of his outfit. "We're not walking all the way to the west side for bigger candy. There are plenty of houses in our area that have more than enough."

"But they don't have king-sized!" Black Star rebuked.

"You don't _need_ king-sized! You'll be getting plenty of small candies, so that should be enough."

"But I want king-sized!" Patty chimed in. Her eyes twinkled brightly as she jumped up and down in excitement, the pom-poms she held swaying and bouncing chest grasping the attention of close passerby's. "And if we get money with our king-sized candy, we can use it get even _more _candy! I can buy all the candy bags I want! We'll be stocked for _months_!"

"Yeah!" Black Star loudly agreed. "What she said!"

"Okay…I have to agree with Maka on this one." Liz said. "It's hard enough preventing Patty from getting cavities during Halloween, adding king-sized candy and free money to get more of it is a battle I'm not about to face."Liz folded her arms, giving her sister a disapproving look. "Sorry Pat, we're sticking to this route."

"But 'Sis! This only happens once a year!"

"Well, the candy stores are open year round. So we'll make do with buying the bigger versions there."

Patty pouted and pursued in protesting with Black Star acting as back up, but Maka and Liz continued to shoot them down. The rest of the group idled in wait while the immature and adult members of their group argued; Tsubaki and Soul waited nearby, and Kid and Crona fumbled with their costumes.

By finally convincing Black Star to remain on route by a dictionary meeting his forehead and Liz offering to buy Patty large candies once her Halloween stock was gone, the group pushed forward. The ninja's limp body allowed Maka to pull him by his outfit's collar and follow the path to find their first house of the night.

Once Black Star regained consciousness and yelled loud enough in demand to be released, Maka's senses flipped on to alert, jolted by the sudden rustle from the bushes nearby. She snapped her head toward it, giving the hedges a frowning face of examination. Maka released Black Star and leaned closer to the clouds of vegetation, not listening to Crona's shaky protests.

As she leaned closer to scan the hedge, an eruption of pink burst from the bush, roaring loudly to frighten their victims. Crona cried out with the attackers yell, retreating back behind a puzzled Maka as high-pitched roars were bellowed from a person hiding under pink bed-sheets; the ghost-like figure sporadically moved their limbs beneath the covers as they advanced. Two small figures emerged from the brush to join their pink comrade, moaning with their arms extended as they acted like the zombies they appeared to be.

The group stared at the small scarers in unfrightened astonishment. Maka moved her head to the side while determined feet marched themselves in front of her, the ninja meister's face comedically furious. "Who dares try to frighten the lightning god's subordinates?"He pointed a finger to the small figures shrieking and moaning at him. "Just who do you think you are to mess with my loyal servants, you stupid pink piece of jello?!"

"I am _not_ jello!" A high-pitched voice retaliated. The sound of a foot stomping against pavement shook the air. Small hands appeared beneath the sheets to pull the costume's hood up, revealing the pouting face of the young witch Angela. "I'm Ditto!" She pointed to the beady eyes on her hood and the tight lipped mouth straight across it. "See? My hood has Ditto's face on it!"

"Ditto, jello, they're both the same thing."

"They are_ not_!"

"Are too!"

"_Are not_!"

"Are _too_!"

"Are _not_!"Angela grabbed the red and white ball in her costume's pocket and chucked it into Black Star's groin. His face went pale as a sheet as the poke-ball painted rock fell to the floor. He hopped while holding the space between his thighs as Angela laughed in victory. The zombie versions of Pot of Fire and Thunder giggled with her.

When the ninja recovered, he ripped off the lightning clamp on his chiton, letting his chest become completely bare as the fabric fell. "You little brat, you wanna start a _fight_?! Do ya? Well,_ come here then_!"

Black Star lifted up his lightning bolt clamp as a butcher would a knife, and a wailing Angela ran away. Tsubaki slapped the back of her meister's head, leading his face into a hard swipe from Maka's book that imbedded him into the ground. Once the threat was downed, the two motherly women directed their concern to the small children hiding behind jeaned legs.

"My apologies." A formal voice said. "I've been trying to catch up with Angela and her friends for awhile now, but it appears the motivation of sweets rekindles a youth's fire that I cannot keep up with."

Maka looked toward the advancing samurai, watching as he placed a comforting hand on Angela's head. She placed her own on the hiding swordsman's hand behind her. "It's no problem. They're just having fun. I'm just surprised you were able to find them, as kids always find clever ways to sneak away during this holiday."

"Indeed they do." Mifune agreed. He peered down at Angela who was in a sticking-out-tongue battle with Black Star. He turned to face Tsubaki. "Thank you again for helping with the kid's costumes. They've been enjoying them all night."The samurai's eyebrows lowered and traces of exasperation were spotted in his eyes. "As you can see by what they pulled just now."

Tsubaki gave Mifune a warm smile, softly shaking her head. "It was my pleasure to help. I'm just glad everything fits them. That's always a sewer's number one concern."

Mifune responded with a gentlemanly bow of his head and an idea suddenly sparked in Maka's head. A smile advanced across her face. "Mr. Mifune, would you and the kids like to join us? You'll have more eyes to look after them, and we can teach your newcomers to trick-or-treat with our own."

Mifune blinked in surprise as Maka looked behind her. "Right, Crona?"

Heat flared in Crona's cheeks when all eyes looked to him. His gaze flittered to the ground and replied with a hesitant bobbing of his head.

The samurai made a sound of surprise as the rocker dressed Crona side-stepped from behind Maka. "Well, I must say I'm shocked. I wasn't expecting Crona to adopt such a rebellious outfit for this occasion."

"It shows the rebellious side he's hiding from us." Soul said. Maka could tell by the confidence in his voice that he was smirking. "It just takes a nice set of clothes to help bring it out."

Ragnorak emerged from Crona's back with a ceremonious splurt, planting himself on his head. "If you're talking about me, then yes, you're right; I'm a rebellious badass. But Crona can just call me to display my awesomeness, rather than wear something that makes him look fucking ridiculous."

A rumble was made behind Soul's ominous beast mask. "I don't think you have much room to talk on looking ridiculous, seeing as how you look like some sad excuse for a puppet."

"Oh, _do I_? Well fuck you too, in-rehab-Scooby-Doo. Don't turn your rage on me because your addiction to funky dog-treats made you turn to harder drugs. It's your own fault for looking like shit now."

Maka thought the grinding of teeth behind Soul's mask was so hard, sparks would fly out of his open eyeholes. He cracked one of his clawed knuckles in preparation to strike, but Maka frowned at him. Crona was already having difficulty getting accustomed to this holiday, the last thing he needed as a memory of it was a fight between his friends.

"Well, I suppose more eyes to watch the kids wouldn't hurt." Mifune spoke up, breaking the tense silence. "If you don't mind, that is."

"Of course not!" Maka replied, turning her head toward the samurai.

"We'd be happy to have them." A smiling Tsubaki backed Maka up.

"Wait…so, we're babysitting now?" Black Star frowned.

Maka turned toward the ninja meister, her frown deepening. "For once Black Star, try not to be a dick tonight. You've had plenty of Halloweens in your life, the least thing you can do is help teach others who have never experienced one."

Black Star looked to Angela and Crona, rolling his eyes afterwards. He opened his mouth to say something, but Maka wagged her book in front of him expectantly. An invisible zipper closed his lips, and the ninja kept his frown as he walked.

Tsubaki took the hands of Pot of Fire and Thunder while Angela stayed beside Mifune. They walked until they reached the first house of the night: a two-story residence with ghosts hanging from tree branches and tombstones rising from the lawn; a series of frowning, sharply smirking, or intricately designed jack-o-lanterns lined up the brick pathway to the house.

The group parked themselves outside the gate and Maka and Tsubaki gave the trick-or-treating guidelines: how one should speak the mantra of the holiday once the door was opened, politely wait for their treat, and to stay nearby the group at all times.

As the girls spoke, Angela kept to her childish roots and lost interest quickly. Her head turned around in scanning circles, sighting the swordsman next to her who held his arm tightly, intently listening to Maka's Halloween lecture.

Angela examined him curiously, a small sparkle lighting up her eyes. She released her grip from Mifune and leapt toward the swordsman, saying, "Hey!" She took a hold of her pink hood and flipped it over her head, smiling as she looked to startled meister. "You and I match!" She pointed to the beady eyes on the hood of her outfit, thinking they were similar to the black shades resting on Crona's forehead. "See? You and I have the same color for our heads and eyes! Are you also a Ditto?" Her eyes scanned a shocked Crona again. "And if you are, why is only your head pink? Are you some kind of new evolution? Or are you hiding the color under your clothes?"

Crona stared at Angela in puzzled astonishment, like she was some odd creature he had never encountered before. But before he could reply, Ragnorak supported himself on Crona's shoulder to lean down toward the small girl.

"Oh, we are_ so_ much cooler than some stupid version of The Blob." Ragnorak snarked. "Even if this fruitcake looks like a rocking wanna-be, a little girl in a lame costume doesn't come close to our awesome badassery."

Angela's mouth opened in surprise of the demon's close range, realization dawning in her eyes. "Oh, I see now! You guys are two summoned Pokémon in a battle, right? Except your costume lets you summon your partner back and forth? That's cool!" She tilted her head farther to the side in wonder. She pointed her finger at the lowered Ragnorak and looked to Crona. "But how are you making your Banette talk? I thought he had a zipper over his mouth. Are you speaking for him?"

Crona's blushing face squirmed as an angry growl left Ragnorak. Soul grumbled behind his elastic mask, "If only we could have such nice things…"

The demon lowered himself farther, opening his large, drooling mouth over Angela's hand. She shrieked as he snapped it shut, attempting to bite her extended finger she quickly withdrew. She recoiled back behind Mifune while Ragnorak loudly screeched, "Go on, twerp! Call me some kind of puppet one more time! I dare you! And the next time you do, I'll eat you _whole_ rather than aim for your stupid hand!"

Angela's half-hiding face behind her guardian became determined, accepting the sword's challenge. "Well if you do, I'll just use my Ditto powers to evolve into something much bigger and make you explode!"

"Then come over here and try it, you little brat!"

Angela struggled to charge forward while Ragnorak egged her on, refrained by the hold Tsubaki had on her Ditto hood. The noisy sword was hushed by the impact of a book striking the top of his head and the steel fist of his meister to his jaw, both scolding him for treating a small child in such a way.

As the pair cooled off and Ragnorak retreated back into an embarrassed Crona, Black Star took the stage.

"Wait, why are you that Ditto thing anyway? It's not even scary. Why not wear some fairy princess outfit or something else that's super girly?"

"Because Ditto can change its color and form, kinda like my chameleon totem can! Watch!" She raised her hands to her sides, a determined pout coming over her face as she squatted. "Turn intoooooo…_Mifune_!"

She clapped her hands together, and the expected plume of magic smoke failed to bloom over her. Angela kept her kiddish pout and stance while the group stared, looking like she was in deep thought. She then ran toward her guardian, climbing up his limbs to sit on his shoulders; she hid her face behind his head and grabbed his cheeks to manipulate the flaps. "See?" Angela said in a failed attempt of Mifune's voice. "Now I'm Mifune! Fear my awesome samurai powers! Rawrrrr _rawr rawr_!"

Liz joined in with a laughing Maka and Tsubaki, Patty playing along with the supposedly transformed Angela and lifted her fists in challenge to her new form. Mifune went with the act, and did as his controller ordered to unleash his katanas and display them to his cheerleader opponent.

Black Star, however, was not as amused as his group mates.

"That's what that chewed-up piece of gum can do?"The ninja blatantly mocked. "That's even lamer than I thought."

"No _you're_ lame!" Angela rebuked, pushing her hands on top of Mifune's head. "And you look like a sweaty man who smells like stale meat rather than a god!

"Oh _yeah_? Well, you know what I think you really look like? You look like a little pink cu-!"

"_Okay_ that's enough bad words for today!" Maka stepped in, plunging her book into Black Star's mouth. "I think we've had enough excitement for tonight. It's getting late, and we should head to our first house of the night." She looked to Black Star, a dangerous glint sparking in her eyes. "Sound like a plan, Black Star?"

The ninja meister and Angela kept their angered faces toward each other, the childish downturns of lips creasing their faces. Only when Tsubaki promoted the candy inside the house before them did their attention finally divert away from the other.

Angela jumped off Mifune's shoulders to travel up the jack-o-lantern pathway, her zombie friends not far behind. The rest of the group followed their lead, Patty and Black Star sprinting to the door, while others approached calmly.

Once again, a nervous Crona and calm Maka were all who remained behind the cobwebbed gate.

"How are you holding up, Crona?" Maka asked.

"F-Fine." Crona's shuddering voice replied. His hands tightly wringed the fabric of his pillowcase.

Noticing his distress, Maka smiled softly at him. She laid a hand on his shoulder. "It won't be too bad, Crona. I promise. You just walk up to the door, say trick-or-treat, and you get candy. Simple as that."

Crona's hands held the pillowcase tighter as he hunched his shoulders. His body started shaking. "I-I understand that part…b-but…w-what if there's something scary waiting up there like that coffin skeleton from earlier? What if there's something even _worse_ waiting up there for me?"His pupils shrunk into a panicked ice-blue as he looked to the fake tombstones in the lawn. "W-What if zombies erupt from the ground over there? And what if those ghosts in the trees suddenly come alive? I-I can't deal with zombies or ghosts chasing me!"

It was an effort to not laugh from Crona's claims, but Maka kept her humor hidden behind an empathetic face.

For a sheltered sixteen year old who had seen more darkness and death as a grizzled veteran had, she knew he deserved the utmost care and patience in any new experience.

"I promise you, Crona. It will be fine. I don't see any coffins or disturbed dirt that would signal a zombie being underneath the lawn. The only thing that will show itself is the owner of the house, nothing else. Okay?"

The hunching of his shoulders eased back a little, but his hands still messed with his pillowcase. Small shakes shook his rigid body as he gulped.

Knowing it may be her only weapon to help calm him, Maka took one of Crona's hands and combed her fingers through his. She showed him an encouraging smile. "But, if for some odd reason that does happen, then you have me to help scare them away." A confident smile brightened her face. "I'm sure a skilled swordsman like yourself and a meister like me can handle a few big-bad ghouls easily. That is, if they dared to show themselves. Don't you think?"

Crona's face was blood-red as he looked to her, his gaze darting back and forth. It was shaky and light, but he squeezed her hand back. "I-I…"His eyes moved to meet hers, and his frightened crystal-blue eyes slowly devolved into hypnotizing ebon. "I-I think…m-maybe you're right."

"Exactly!" Maka grinned. She pulled on his hand, dragging him forward. "So let's go!"

Maka hauled the uncertain boy whose feet were extended in front of him. His heels smoked from his resistance of the sudden plunge and he stood motionless once they reached the porch's steps. He trembled at the sight of the stitched, smiling face painted on the house's door.

Not allowing fear to overtake Crona, Maka fled behind the swordsman and pushed on his back, getting him to slowly clamber up the steps one foot at a time.

Mifune knocked on the door, a soft chatter wafting around the group until the entryway opened. A middle-aged woman stood before them with a large bowl of candy.

The group extended their bags, all following the holiday's mantra, "Trick-or-!"

Black Star launched himself forward and shoved his bag into the woman's face, "Your all powerful god will smite thee and maim your house if he isn't given all your candy!"

Patty followed the ninja's example, thrusting her own bag into the woman's face. "Yeah! Unload the bowl or we'll coat your house with toilet paper!"

The woman stared in shock toward the lively teenager's determined faces. She frowned in irritation of their threat and complied by giving each one piece of her smallest candy in their bags.

Insulted frowns wrinkled the pair's faces toward their amount of loot. Their mouths opened to demand for more, but Patty was pulled away by Liz and Maka put her pillow case over Black Star's head, yanking him back, and kicking him away from the door.

After the loud duo was put on the sidelines, the remaining crowded outside the door, saying the chant of the holiday with their bags out. The only one who didn't follow that form was the frozen Crona standing at the borders of the group.

The woman complimented the costumed children as Crona rehearsed the holiday's line underneath his breath. His hands shook as the wringing of his pillow case grew more intense.

Maka softly nudged Crona's arm, whispering. "Remember, simple as that. I'll say it with you. Ready?"

Crona looked to her, swallowing the lump in his throat while nodding. He turned his head back toward the house owner, and lifted his shaking arms to hold up his open bag. Crona appeared like a beggar asking for food as he bent his head in submission, softly muttering, "T-T…Trick-o-or-Treat."

Smiling widely, Maka followed his example, "Trick-or-Treat!"

The woman turned to them in awareness, a wide smile extending on her lips. "Well, don't you two have some fantastic costumes!" She looked to Crona, a small laugh leaving her. "And I don't think I've ever seen a pink-haired rock-star before. You look _adorable_!"

A violent blush highlighted Crona's cheeks as the woman dropped three candy pieces into his bag, winking at him for how well he pulled off his look. Maka laughed to herself as Crona cutely brought his chin closer to his chest, acting like a frightened tortoise retreating into his shell.

While Crona tried to recover from the storm of comments, Angela appeared beside him. "He's not a rocker, he's a different version of Ditto! Like me! And we're going to be in triple Pokemon battle if we see any enemies who dare come out of their wild patches!" She looked up to the sword meister expectantly, a happy twinkle in her eyes. "Aren't we?"

Crona's eyes darted to Angela's, his confused features fidgeting at the idea. The swordsman's gaze returned to Maka; he softly nodded his head, his eyes silently asking her if that was the right response.

A joyous squeal left the small girl. She jumped forward and hugged one of Crona's black pant legs. "Yay! We're going to be the best team ever!" She looked to the zombie shamens beside her. "And you guys can come in on the fight too! We can use some support! Those wild Pokemon won't know what hit em!"

Pot of Fire and Thunder jumped in excitement and ran to where their friend was, hugging the alarmed Crona's non-occupied leg.

A wide smile was on Maka's face before she could stop it, seeing Crona struggle against the children's grip. He lightly wriggled his legs, kindly asking for his limbs back, but that only made the kids hold him tighter. Crona's panic and chattering of his teeth escalated while the children laughed.

"It looks like your image is already attracting kid of all ages." The residence owner joked. "I can see how you must be Mr. Popular."

Crona looked to the woman in surprise, his eyes framing wider as the familiar ripping of flesh came into the air; Ragnorak rested his fists on his meister's head. "Oh, now that's just fucking _disgusting_. I can understand that Crona looks like a creep with this outfit on, but there's no need to be calling him a damn pedo. That's going too far! And you people say_ I'm_ sick."

The woman's face fell, staring in silent shock at the creature perched on Crona's head. Ragnorak's eyes swiveled at her reaction and a snicker of mischief escaped him. "But if you're too ashamed to apologize, there's no need to worry about saying you're sorry. I'll just take your candy bowl as an apology offering!"

The demon thrusted his arms forward into the candy bowl to stuff what he grabbed into his open mouth, bits of chocolate and wrappers sticking in his pearly whites. Shock brimmed in the woman's eyes, and a terrified scream escaped her, the candy bowl dropping from her grasp.

"Hey!"Ragnorak growled. "I was eating that, damn it! Pick it-!"

Crona slammed his weapon's mouth shut before he could finish, panic overtaking his face. He struggled to keep his weapon's mouth confined while Maka tried to calm the woman down, but her terror only grew louder as Ragnorak bit Crona's hand, forcing his mouth out of his clutches. The sword meister fled the scene before the woman could let out another outcry, apologizing over and over as he ran down the jack-o-lantern path.

From that point on, Maka wished the rest of the night had turned out better for her friend. But the results of tonight were far from the truth.

It didn't irritate her that the struggle became greater to make Crona walk up the house's steps to get candy, but the constantly erupting Ragnorak who appeared to steal candy did. Not only was he setting a horrible example to small children and embarrassing Crona, but the demon was creative on where he would erupt: Ragnorak's favorite places of emergence was his meister's chest to leap out in the owner's faces, or materializing a hand in Crona's leg to poke at his victim's legs. The demon even made only his head appear on Crona's shoulder, blabbering and loudly pleading to get him out of his hellish prison.

And the results? Well, Maka now knew how door-to-door salesman felt. The screams were difficult enough to handle, but having the door slammed in your face was something thick-skinned people were made for, not the poor, sensitive soul who hung his head beside her.

Maka pointed to the blooming flowers as they walked past the school's dormitories, hoping the bright colors would help cheer him up and erase his inner turmoil. But to her dismay, only a look of sadness and possible burdening to others was all that was returned to her.

Maka ignored the snickering whispers behind her, knowing Soul and Black Star were either laughing at her attempt to cheer Crona up with something so girlish, or were still re-enacting some of the reactions of home-owners who bolted into their houses. Of course they didn't have a problem with what their reactions did to Crona, as the candy they dropped often made it outside the door, leaving their bags heavy and full.

If only she could just see him smile again…if only she could see her dear friend happy at least _once_ on this traumatic night. Then the spike of guilt piercing through her heart and soul may partially ease from its painful sting.

Just one _smile_…

A symphony of loud sounds filled Maka's ears when her group turned a corner. She watched as people crowded the sidewalks around them to view the city's Halloween parade storm the streets.

Cheers and music boomed as floats showing the spooky tales from popular culture ride down the streets: a castle car with fanged lurkers hissed in show of Dracula's frightening troupe of vampires, a green monster on a steel bed shook from electrocution light to embody Frankenstein's story, and mummies from Egypt's sandy lands rose from their tombs by an ancient curse.

Maka was more than pleased with the creative parade, but the same could not be said for Crona. He shook from the simple knowledge that such frightening creatures could live with such freakish forms: people having missing limbs, blood oozing from their mouths, or skin painted sickly colors. A frightened squeak escaped him when a zombie launched up from a dirt patch in a passing float, another undead walking beside the float roaring to startle the boy again. Crona attempted to flee from his terror, but the wall of people behind them and Maka's grip on his jacket sleeve denied him.

The scythe meister laced her fingers through Crona's, lifted up their molded hands, and pointed to calmer floats to show him more humorous sights of the holiday.

"Look," Maka said, pointing to robed figures with beaming swords of red and green fighting on a space cruiser. "There are costumes that aren't meant to be scary on Halloween. They can be used for entertainment." Her attention turned to the Japanese float with low squatting men wearing padded sumo suits. "Like those guys. Sometimes people dress up as other things just for the fun of it. Not to scare people like the ones from the other floats."

Warm reluctance colored Crona's face as his eyes followed her fingers, watching as the sumo performers laughed while wrestling the other, the bearded men from space smiling as one jumped backwards from his opponent's force attack. Crona even looked shocked that people could laugh and smile when a man in a gorilla suit grabbed people from the crowd to dance with them on the streets.

Maka resumed in pointing out funny costumes scattered around the parade, and soon enough, the rare smile she searched for quivered on Crona's lips. The determined fire to fully bring out one of the sweetest smiles she ever witnessed burned brighter within her. She used their combined hands to continue pointing toward amusing performers in costumes, squeezing his hand tighter in hope to fuel a further curve on his lips.

With help from the clever humor of costume design and their performer's actions, the genuine smile Maka searched for finally revealed itself. Warmth filled Maka's chest and soon she found herself smiling brightly with him. Crona's gift to her extended as he allowed her to hear a breath of laughter caused by Halloween's comedy, leaving Maka nearly barren of breath.

Maka inhaled shakily at her overwhelming joy to see Crona smiling. The gentle heat within her chest spiked in warmth when Crona turned to her, thanking her silently through a squeeze of her hand and softness of his smile.

A fluttering sensation beat against the insides of her belly as their stares lingered, the warmth in her chest branching into her cheeks. And that warmth she felt may even be infectious, as Crona's reddening face looked to be growing as warm as hers.

Maybe it was the heat of being in their costumes or that so many bodies were wrapped around them to make her feel so warm. But all she knew was her voice had left her, her mouth opening and closing like she had something to say. Crona lolled his head to the side, wondering what she wanted to bring up.

But as her mouth opened again, the bursting of celebrating music and an outcry of agony startled the pair. Their hands broke away and eyes moved to peer beside her, seeing a distressed Kid holding the sides of his head.

"This parade is just…_atrocious_."

"Oh come on." Liz responded, resting her hands on her hips. "It's not that bad. I think they got pretty clever this year."

"Yeah!" Patty said. She approached the group with her pillowcase hauled over her shoulder. "And the candy vendors here are pretty cheap too. I mean, all you have to do is just stand in front of them in an outfit like this, and they give you anything you want! I didn't have to jump around or anything!"

"No no_ no_, this is just a… _catastrophe_." Kid whimpered.

"Oh, great."Liz sighed. "Here we go."

Kid pointed a finger to numerous floats, shouting, "Not only is there is an uneven number of vampires and werewolves, but the undead's make up is far too thick! The flesh doesn't even match the other portions of the face! They are either too large, too small, or have none at all! It's ludicrous!" Kid looked to a float with a haunted house, his fists clenching tighter. "And _you_. If you have one broken window on the right side of the house, so must the other! And three steps to the house is _not_ an acceptable number! It must be eight! Eight, I say!"

"…Just because your house has eight steps, doesn't mean everyone else should have them." Liz shook her head.

Kid closed his eyes and stood up from his crouched stance to adjust the skull in the middle of his suit. "Well, I suppose it is up to me to take responsibility and be the symmetric idol these poor souls need. That was my whole intention of dressing up as such a magnificent insect."

"Oh _yes_. And we would just _love_ to be saved by a butterfly superhero." Liz taunted.

Small boots clopped on the floor as Angela walked to Liz. She tapped the teenager's bare leg, asking, "What's symmetrical mean?"

Liz looked down at the small girl whose costume's edges swayed from side to side with her body. She smiled at the small witch, replying, "It means that if something is cut in half, the two halves will appear the same and are evenly distributed. Like it appears to have a mirror image." She looked to Kid who was dusting off the tips of his butterfly wings. "And that's what that nut-case over there is obsessed with."

"Oh." Angela looked to Kid, blinking as she scanned him. "Then how come his hair has streaks on one side, but not the other? Is he still symmetrical?"

The group was still, the only noises heard being the musical tunes of Halloween music and Liz's grumble underneath her breath, "…_Damn it_."

Immediately, Kid fell to the floor, his fist slamming on the ground as he sobbed to himself, wailing his uselessness and hideous appearance. He floundered on the floor, costumed and normally dressed passerby's looking at the loud Shinigami in awkward curiosity.

Maka rolled her eyes as Kid blubbered. Patty offered one of her many candies, saying she'll make an exception just for him, but recoiled it into her mouth when he acted too slow. Angela skipped back toward her guardian, not knowing or uncaring of the damage she had done.

She looked to the parade and saw the man in a gorilla suit walk by to snatch a startled Tsubaki, dancing and twirling her around in promotion to fuel the laughter of the crowd.

The scythe meister turned to show Crona, hoping Kid didn't spoil his happiness, but her eyes were met with a confusing sight.

Where she hoped to find her best friend, a new series of people took his place. They looked at her oddly, narrowing their eyes at her momentarily before looking back to the crowd. Panic tightened Maka's chest as she stared, her breath catching in her throat.

Her fear rose higher as she moved her head to examine the crowd, her brain panicking at the fact that among the sea of heads and bodies around her, the tell-tale pink of Crona was nowhere to be seen.

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><p><strong>Just one more to go~<strong>

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and that you'll tell me what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ooooo~ November 1st, the most scariest time of year~**

**Lol. Yeah, I know, not reallyxD Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the last chapter!**

**Warning, this chapter contains underage consumption of alcohol and lewd instances. If this discomforts you, proceed with caution.**

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><p>"Come on. I didn't grab you<em> that<em> hard!"

A hard slap impacted the middle of Crona's shoulder blades, deterring him off balance. "Get it all out of your system man! I didn't snatch you from that stupid crowd just for you to get sick on me."

Crona took in deep breaths, his lungs overexcited to find that the calloused force covering his mouth was gone. He rubbed his chest where tough strength wrapped around him and looked up at the grinning ninja meister who tugged him away from Maka to plunge into the parade's sea of spectators.

"Every time you say you didn't grab someone roughly, you end up breaking one of their ribs." The nearby scythe retorted, his beast mask tucked under his arm. "And judging by how you practically jumped him once Maka's head turned, I'd say you broke a couple rather than one."

Black Star waved a hand at Soul, shooing off his comment. "Please, this big bad rock-star has more strength than he lets on. Even I can see that. And he doesn't complain when I grab him like that, unlike _somebody_ I know."

Soul rolled his eyes and looked to the recovering Crona. "You doin' alright, man?"

"F-F-Fine." Crona's quivering voice responded. He rubbed his jacketed chest in soothing pets as he stood up straight.

"Good!" Black Star snaked a bulky arm around Crona's neck, trapping him in a neck-hold as he pulled the swordsman toward him. "Because this divinity's positive aura is going to be the bright light through the cloudy shit-storm that is your Halloween."

Crona fidgeted in Black Star's grip, carefully trying to worm his way out of his clutches. "B-But…I-I'm feeling a little better than I was before. Really, I-I am. The parade and Maka helped-"

"Nonsense!" Black Star rebuked. The grip he had on Crona's neck tightened. "Some lame parade isn't going to erase my memory of those scared pussies treatment toward you, or their insult to me for treating you that way!" A devious glint sparked in Black Star's eyes, making a shot of cold fear run through Crona's veins. "But I only held back my fury and took their dumb candy for what's to come later. The way I'm going to help lift your mood up into my heavenly clouds, is with some good ol' fashioned Halloween payback."

The swordsman gave Black Star a quizzical look as the ninja's arm unraveled from his neck. Crona placed an uncertain arm to his chest while the plotting blue-haired boy scratched his chin, examining the nearby houses. "I remember the first house we visited was down this way. So we can start with that banshee bitch first." He turned to Soul. "How much toilet paper you got at your house?"

Crona's brows furrowed from Black Star's odd question to Soul.

Toilet paper…?

"Not enough to TP fifteen houses." Soul commented casually. He scratched the behind of his head, irritation lurking in his eyes. "And even if I did have enough, Maka would probably cut off my ass and use it as a wall decoration if she saw more than three rolls missing. She's still sore about what we pulled last year."

"…she _counts_ your toilet paper? Are you kidding me?"

"When you TP the outside of the academy and light bags of dog shit on teacher's doorsteps, you can bet Maka is going to keep all the lighters and toilet rolls under lock and key."

Black Star groaned in irritation, running a hand through his blue mane. "_Fine_. We'll just use the toilet paper at my house and grab the eggs in my spare stocks. They're nice and rotten too, so we can huck em' at people's windows and cars after they get a huge web of ass-wipes on their lawn!"

Soul grimaced, his brows lowering. "…now, even I know the difference in playing a funny prank, and just being an asshole."

Black Star frowned. He crossed his muscled arms across his chest. "Soul, I brought you along to help make this fun. Not be a fun_-sucker_. If I wanted that, I would have asked Maka to come along."

Soul shrugged. "Just speaking the truth."

As the pranksters spoke, Crona shifted in his spot, curiosity and disagreement stirring in his brain.

He didn't agree with Black Star saying Maka was a fun-sucker. If anything, she managed to make a night where people enjoyed being misshapen creatures or oozing blood buckets much easier for his frightened self to tolerate. And even though such gruesome costumes existed, she proved to him by people among the floats that there were funnier sights of the holiday, that people could get very creative and use their costumes to entertain the crowds. He really was enjoying himself by watching them.

…and although he would never tell anyone this… he felt being with Maka was much more fun and exciting than being with the boys before him. It's not that Crona didn't like them, they could be nice. But he found their pastimes and methods of fun…a little odd.

Kinda like the odd speech Black Star and Soul spoke in now, saying those strange terms that escaped him. What did they mean? He understood what egging meant, even he could figure that out. But what did the other term mean?

In order to find his answer, Crona stepped forward tentatively. He gently tapped the shredded fabric on Soul's shoulder, muttering, "Uhm…Soul?"

The scythe's head turned towards him, a questioning white eyebrow rising.

"…w-what do you mean by TP-ing?" Crona asked.

Soul blinked, confusion wrinkling the skin of his forehead. "You've seriously never heard of TP-ing?"

Crona shook his head and Soul's eyebrows raised in surprise. The scythe turned his head around in search for something, mumbling that there had to be one on such a common night for that TP-ing term. He lifted a clawed hand when he found his target, pointing to a house in the distance. "You take a bunch of toilet paper and do that to a house when they're asleep, or not home. There's a crap load of people around the parade, so I'm not surprised someone already took advantage of the chance."

The puzzled sword meister followed Soul's finger to look at the house far in front of them. His eyes widened as he spotted a house's tree having white streamers looping around and hanging off tree branches. Long ropes of white extended from the tree to the house in different directions, leaving an intricately messy cobweb to be paired with the dunes of stringy white unraveling along the lawn.

A nervous blockage clogged Crona's windpipe and Black Star roared with laughter. "And the funniest part is, it'll take em' _days_ to take it all down! But that's only the beginning!" Black Star smashed his fist into his other hand, his sneer pulling wide. "Since they slammed the door in your face, we'll slam their pumpkins on their porches too! They'll regret ever daring to insult or scream at our friend!"

Soul eyes were closed, sharp teeth visible from his small smirk while Black Star laughed. Crona stared at the messy prank the boys planned to perform, anxiety tightening the muscles of his chest.

Crona didn't want to be any more trouble to the people who ran from him. He couldn't really blame them for doing so anyway. He possessed a freakish condition that was difficult for anyone to accept or to _not_ fear. In fact, those panicked reactions toward him happened to him so often…he grew used to it. To some degree, it still hurt, but he could understand why citizens acted in such a justified fashion toward him.

So even though the boys wanted to use their own methods to make him happy through revenge…he couldn't do this.

"I-I don't think…I don't think this is a good idea." Crona spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. He looked up to the dunes and strands of toilet paper Black Star claimed would take days to be thrown away, lightly shaking his head. "I-I don't think I can do that to those people."

Black Star's head snapped toward Crona, incredulity residing in his eyes. "What? And why not? They'll never see it coming!"

Crona struggled to keep eye-contact with Black Star, his breathing coming in shaky gulps in fear he insulted a friend. "I-I just…I just don't think it's a good idea. Those people worked hard to make their houses look nice. I-I don't want them to be sad to see their hard work was ruined by us."

"Screw what they feel." Black Star brashly fought back. "They made you feel like crap! You can't tell me you don't want to _at least_ get back at them."

Crona swallowed, his eyes fixed to the ground while he fumbled with the collar of his jacket. "I-I'm used to those reactions. I can deal with them…b-but I can't deal with TP-ing people." His shoulders slumped, his head hanging low. "I'm sorry."

As silence hovered between the boys, the top of Crona's bowed head felt to be near an open flame growing with heat, it's fiery aura seeping through his skin. His body shook from it, and as he looked up to pinpoint the source, his eyes were met with the hard creased face of Black Star, his furious green eyes boring into his.

The ninja leaned toward Crona, asking harshly, "What do you mean you're used to those reactions, Crona? You telling me this isn't the first time people here have done this to you?"

Crona froze, crystallized by the dominant gaze Black Star stared at him with.

Black Star's eyes narrowed, his tone rising with demand, "Open your mouth, and answer me. Do those assholes do worse than threaten to call the cops if you don't go away? Is this is how people treat you all the time? Is that why you're being a pansy on this?" A forceful hand grabbed Crona's shoulder, jerking him. "If that's the case, then you point those douche-bags out to me, Crona! _Now_!"

"N-No, t-that's not what I m-meant!" Crona' breathlessly stammered. He withdrew himself from Black Star's clutches and stepped backwards, thinking of another way to phrase his discomforts. "I just…I just don't want to throw anything at anyone. I-I don't want to be mean on a night that's supposed to be fun…that's all."

The troupe of boys stood in the barren street, Black Star's eyes glued to Crona's and Soul's calm gaze examining him carefully. He shifted uncomfortably beneath their gazes, and after silent moments passed between them, the scythe closed his eyes, saying, "If Crona doesn't want to do it, he doesn't have to. We'd probably get busted anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone is already on the lookout for us or if the owners of that TP-ed house will just point the finger at us to make the search easy."

Black Star revoked his intense stare from Crona, the green pools lax after the passing storm. "Yeah, I guess so."

The ninja meister stroked his chin again in thought, thinking of other activities for the night while Soul joined him. His eyes became alight with realization as an idea dawned on him. Black Star snickered and launched himself up to slap his hands on his friend's shoulders, wrapping his arms around their necks to pull them closer, "You know what, Crona's right. This is supposed to be a fun night. We shouldn't be so stressed out on a holiday." Black Star turned toward Soul, a sneer splitting his face. "So whaddya say we take him with us to some place fun? Eh, Soul?"

The scythe peered at his friend, flashing a set of confident sharp teeth. "Sounds good to me."

"Alright, then let's go!" Black Star said, loosened his arms to drag the frightened swordsman by his collar. "Just follow us, Crona! We're going to take you to your night of fun and relaxation!"

Shivers ran through Crona as a foreign hand guided him to a location of relaxation. Discomforted by the pushy Black Star's strong grip, the swordsman attempted to tear himself away, but was halted by a sudden lead weight of guilt falling on his heart.

As much as he would love to flee from this odd guidance and run back to something calm and familiar, Crona saw all Black Star and Soul were trying to do was help him have fun after this exhausting night, to try and enjoy himself from the new experience of the holiday…like Maka wanted him to.

Crona winced, his heart aching as he looked back to the bright lights where the parade stormed the city's lively streets.

He hoped Maka wasn't worried. That instead of worrying about where he was, she would ignore her curiosity and leave him behind to enjoy herself. This was a holiday, after all. So she shouldn't have to worry about how a miniscule creature like him felt during this night. Above everyone else, Crona knew the consistently hard working Maka deserved to have a night to be relaxed and worry-free.

That's all he ever wanted. For her to be happy and worry-free…just like she managed to make him feel when around her.

A burning heat seared his face at the remembrance of Maka's gentle smile while directing their fingers toward the parade's floats. His heart quickened at the memory of her smile widening after he joined her in happiness, his scrambling feet feeling like jelly as he traveled with his friends to the farthest side of the boy's dormitories.

That tender memory of her was his only tool to calm himself as his group clambered up the steps of the dorms. He held onto that mental image of Maka as an icy flow of dread circulated through him, Black Star and Soul grinning as they laid their hands on the doorway.

And as they pushed open the wooden barriers to the boy's dormitories, the ice water within Crona felt to freeze his racing heart, his eyes bugging out of his skull in fear he stood before the doorway to hell itself.

In a large lounge room between two ascending stairways, Crona's gaze was met with a large barrier of close-contacted bodies jumping and moving, colorful lights flashing, and noises and yells that felt so loud and intrusive, his very insides shook. Panicked crystal-blue flickered around the room as more outfits of Halloween came into view.

Only this time…more of the boys and girls were in much more…_revealing_ outfits than the ones on the parade floats.

"Here's your night of fun, Crona!" Black Star promoted, pushing the shaky boy through the door. "Welcome to one of the biggest parties of the year!"

"No kidding. There has to be a quarter of the school here." Soul commented, closing the large doors behind them. He peered at the crowd before turning his head to Crona, his crimson eyes curious. "So, what do you think of the place?"

Crona's mouth gaped in terror. Frantic breaths whistled in and through his lips, watching the loud rhythmic beats of music call more people to the over-crowded middle, dancers searching and grabbing for partners, hands holding red cups rising in the air.

Pelvises and lips gravitating _way _too close to the other's…

Jittery concern shook his nerves, ash and another pungent aroma stinging his nose. "I don't think I can deal with this..." Crona quietly whimpered, his voice barely audible over the music.

"Nah, that's always a beginner's first thought!" Black Star loudly consoled, placing a hand on the Crona's shoulder. The swordsman looked at his raucous friend, bewildered and even more frightened that such a place existed where_ he_ had to speak loud enough to be heard over music. "But don't worry! You've got Soul and I to monitor you while we get you to relax!"He dragged the sword meister by his collar again, pulling him forward into the ocean of bodies before them. "So let's go find where those guys stashed it!"

Crona yelped from the charge into the sea of thigh-revealing girls and muscled boys. As Black Star dragged him by his leash with Soul following behind them, Crona desperately tried to avoid the sweaty or make-upped bodies around him. He jerked when he almost ran into a couple whose lips were locked onto the other, unease settling in at how their bodies were practically glued together like their lips were. The frightened first-timer's apprehension reached its peak when a stumbling girl missed her partner's moving head, stamping her black-colored lips onto his cheek.

A cry of fright left Crona from the wet contact. His legs ran forward from a new fuel to escape from what he thought was the tormenting lava pit of the underworld. That had to be what it was, as this crowded and overly warm sea of people certainly matched _his_ description of what a bubbling vat of agony was.

He didn't stop running until he felt a hard tug on his collar, Black Star yanking Crona back into a neck-hold. "And there it is!" He pointed toward the end of the room where a set of silver barrels rested. "Sweet, we've even got servers too!" The ninja meister marched toward the set of people idling by the barrels with nozzles, barking, "Hey, fill up a round for my boys! We need a good swig after a tiring night on the town."

An irritated sigh left one of the girls of the group. She turned her pink head to show them her irked, whiskered face. "If you want something, then get it yourself. I'm not your damn hostess."

"Could have fooled me." Black Star replied. He raised a suggestive eyebrow, his grin ascending higher. "'Cause for all I know, you could be one of those naughty hostesses, Kim. Or are you dressing up as a sexy cat for some weirdo kicks?"

"That's my girlfriend you're talking to, Black Star." A gentlemanly stern voice retaliated. A boy with thick glasses and pointy horns on the sides of his head turned to face them. "So I suggest you choose your next words wisely."

Crona watched nervously as Black Star puffed out his chest in challenge, looking to the white gowned man who spoke. "Oh yeah? And just who do you think you are to talk to_ me_ that wa-"

Black Star stopped as his eyes went up and down Oxford's costume. The young genius looked at the ninja oddly as he felt to be examined like a breath-taking person on a street. The group watched as Black Star's eyes traveled over the gown Oxford wore, and the familiar symbol stamped on his gown's chest clamp.

Crona jumped when the boy's foreheads slammed together, an electric spark of rivalry cracking between their eyes as their teeth grit harshly in their jaws.

"And just what the hell are you thinking dressing up as Zeus, Ox?" Black Star snarled. "You and I both know_ I'm_ the only one you can pull him off!"

"_Ha! _Oxford mocked. "Perhaps in some parallel universe, you may have been able to. But not this one. There is only one true Lightning King, and that is _me_."

"You wanna settle this the old fashioned way then?" Black Star replied darkly, cracking his knuckles.

"It would seem that is the only way to resolve this troublesome matter."

"Ox…is this really necessary?" Kim asked, her tone sounding more annoyed than concerned. "We came here to have fun, not pick fights."

"For a man, it is. For not only must I defend the honor of my lady, but there can only be _one_ superior god of the clouds. Therefore, we shall_ fight_!"

Battle cries were made between the fighters as Kim rolled her eyes and shook her head, Soul ignoring the scene by walking to one of the silver barrels. Crona jerked when loud calls of a fight were made around the room, and people flocked around them to cheer on the competitors.

There was no time for Crona to react before someone grabbed the plastic guitar idling on his back, yanking it to pull him into the approaching wave of people to steal his spot. He yelped and cringed as he was bounced around the waves of running bodies like the silver ball of a pinball machine; his sunglasses popped off from his tossings, and the plastic guitar was ripped off his back in the excitement as he fell to the ground.

Once the torrent of sprinting people subsided, Crona gasped for air, picked himself up, and placed hand on a nearby armchair for support.

He followed his calming mentor's advise and breathed in deep breaths as he stood in the depths of the oceanic array of people. Crona's breath hitched as Ragnorak erupted from his back, screeching, "Well hot _damn_! Now _this_ is what I'm talking about! This night is finally going somewhere!"

The swordsman lifted his head to give his weapon a perplexed look. "W-What are you talking about? You actually _liked it_ when people tried to run us over?"

A scoff left the small demon. "Not that." Ragnorak pointed a small hand in front of his meister. "_That_, you blind idiot."

Crona blinked in wonder as he moved his head, Ragnorak hurting his eardrums as he strangely yelled to "go, go go!" When he met Ragnorak's reference, Crona's breath felt to evaporate from his lungs, a blush of embarrassment, fear, and shock taking over his face.

Unintentionally, Crona sought support from a chair that held two girls in a bunny and devil costume; their lips dragged across their companion's and bodies were held together so tightly, Crona thought they were trying to mold themselves together. His panic skyrocketed as he saw they weren't the only ones too, as other couples sitting or laying on sofas were doing the same thing as the girls.

He would have screamed if he knew where his voice went, but like his voice-box, his body was frozen. Fear and horror struck him like lightning when the girls parted, looking to him in awareness of his observing with their brows furrowing.

His body finally reacted when the girls peered at him, recoiling his hand with a quick outcry and zipping back into the crowd of bodies again. He ran into a nearby couple while fleeing, the irritated dancers pushing him away when he bumped into them. Crona tried to apologize, but his attention was too focused on dodging the many bodies moving around him, his ears aching from the music and victorious yells from Black Star and the crowd as his fight ended, Ox's body flying into the air.

All Crona could do in this strange place of people closely expressing themselves to the other, was dodge the dancing passerbys, and wish that either Soul and Black Star would find him, or a route to the exit would reveal itself.

While his meister dodged, Ragnorak tilted his head, saying, "Hey, Crona. Do me a favor, and lean to the right a bit more."

"W-Why do you want me to do-_that_!" Crona squeaked, drawing back from his forward step when a girl in a witch outfit jumped a police officer boy. He flinched to the right when a boy in a caveman outfit guided a laughing girl to the lounge room he just fled from.

Another jarring sound shook Crona as he moved, a smack and a loud shriek vibrating his eardrums. He turned to meet the twirling head of an infuriated girl in a tight and revealing cat-woman outfit.

Stinging pain engulfed his cheek as the girl swiped a hard slap across it. The cat-woman's eyes flared with rage as she seethed, "You slap my ass again and I'll do something _much_ worse, you little pervert!"

Crona stared in confused surprise while the girl marched away on black high heels. Ragnorak snickered from the hiding spot behind Crona's head and settled his hands on his meister's skull, yelling, "Oh yeah? Well that's your reward for dressing up like a skank, you bitch!"

The swordsman stood in astonishment, his fingers holding his pulsing cheek while Ragnorak's curiosity branched out to their surroundings. Just as it was odd how the girl claimed he had touched her inappropriately, his weapon strangely clung and raved about them stepping in on two girls kissing. He didn't understand why that was such a big deal, or understand _anything_ of what was happening…so Crona settled for keeping his head bowed, hoping to not let his eyes fall on any more viewings that were probably meant to be private.

"I can't believe it." Ragnorak cackled. "This place must be what _heaven_ is like! This place is slut-mania! There has to be whores as far as the eyes can see here! Crona! We've hit the fucking _jackpot_!"

"…we've hit what-mania? What are you even talking about? And w-why are you so excited?"

Ragnorak's lowered his head to stare at his meister. "Because, fuck-tard, you've been edgy ever since that boned-faced freak lifted your exile sentence, and it's been bugging the _crap_ out of me. But now, we've finally found a way for you to relax!" He pointed out to the lake of costumed bodies around them."And that's by being with one of the skanks in this place! They'll be all over you like those two girls who were making out! Hell, maybe if I'm lucky, one of those girls will be drunk enough to do stuff with _me_."

Crona shook from Ragnorak's statements and the powerful beats of the loud music. A maelstrom of anxiety and fear swirled in his stomach. "I-I don't understand…I don't even know any of those girls. So w-why would I do anything of what you're saying with them?"

"Because you'll feel like you're walking on God's fucking face in the sparkling clouds if you do. Now quit being so picky on where you point your damn compass, and do something already!"

"…point my what?"

"Oh for fucks-." Ragnorak grabbed his meister's head, shaking it around in promotion to the promiscuous crowd on the dance floor."Just grab one of those girls, take them somewhere, and _bang them_ already! They've already hit second base with those other guys, so just fill in the spot before they go further! The guys said they wanted you to have fun, so do it!"

"N-No!" Crona refused, fighting off his weapon's grip. "I'm not doing any of that with-_OW_! R-Ragnorak, knock it off!"

"You're going to do it, and you're going to like it!"The demon fought back, tugging Crona's hair harder.

"No I'm not!"

"_Yes you are_!"

"No I'm _not_!"

The peculiar pair combated the other, Crona stumbling to the floor and fighting off his partner while inebriated gazes fell on them, some amused, others confused.

Once the demon released Crona from his grip, he stood up, and began looking around the crowded atmosphere that sent him closer and closer to a panic attack. He looked back to a jumping Black Star who sprayed weird smelling contents out of one of barrels onto the crowd, Soul looking away with irritated eyes but wandering around the crowd curiously.

As strange as this place was to Crona, this was Black Star's and Soul's place of fun, this was their way to relax…so he shouldn't burden them with his desire to leave. If they liked these sort of things, they didn't need a downer like him ruining their good time.

So Crona moved his gaze away from the partying boys and began his lone search for an exit, ignoring his partner's loud rebuttals.

As he observed the large room, Crona wasn't keen on traveling through a sea of bumping bodies again to reach the door on the other side. And every other entry way to another room on the bottom level was full of people.

Maybe he could sneak out of the windows on the second level?

Hoping that was a route of potential escape, Crona sucked in a deep breath and carefully weaved his way through on opening path of the crowd toward a stairway.

When his destination was reached, he cringed at the larger amount of people he'd need to pass at the stair's entry way and settled for jumping over the railing instead. He jumped and caught hold of the railing to lamely pull himself up, telling his aching muscles it was either this way, or go through the traumatizing waves of warm bodies again.

But when a hard slap shook his unguarded rump, a newfound energy sparked in Crona's arms that hiked him up into the air with a high-pitched squeak, rolling over the railing to fall on the inclining stairway.

The cringing swordsman groaned as he lay on the bumpy ground, blushing as loud laughter rose because of what someone yelled was a "nice ass-slapping". He shakily lifted himself up while rubbing his bottom, and as numerous howls for the presentation of his rump lifted in the air, Crona squeaked and scrambled up the flights of stairs to find his escape route.

Yearning to find his way to freedom, Crona frantically searched the corridors of the dormitories' second story. But it was difficult to keep up with his huntings, as his eyes constantly fled from the intimate expressions from people clustered by the windows or pressed against the walls. Just looking at them made him feel intrusive, that he was invading their privacy with a simple glance. That feeling felt more justified when Ragnorak yelled loudly at the kissers to "go get a room".

It was so…_confusing_ to him. He wasn't even sure if he was rude for looking, or if kissing was not allowed like it wasn't at school; at least, that weird term "making-out" wasn't.

So…did that term describe the ones whose lips were softly touching the others, or the ones who looked like they were attacking the other?

Or was he just making a bigger deal out of this than it needed to be…?

Crona groaned and shook his hurting head, not able to tell the difference. All he did know was that the easiest method to avoid more bothersome questions was to ignore it. Ignore it and keep his longing eyes directed for an exit rather than the people showing off their mutual affection.

Once the swordsman saw the hallway's windows were too cluttered with people to sneak past, he looked to one of the dorm rooms across the way.

Maybe one of the dorm rooms would have a window? His home may have been a lonely dungeon, but it had a window. It was barred, but still a window. And if his home had one, the temporary rooms of the students should also have one.

His eyes brightened with hope as he walked toward one of the doors, extending a hand to grab the knob.

"I wouldn't do that if you're hell-bent on keeping your purity card." Ragnorak suggested.

Crona's brows gathered together. "What do you mean?"

Ragnorak snorted, snidely replying, "Even _I_ know to listen closely, moron. You want to be rude?"

Crona kept his clueless look as he stared at his moaning partner. The sword grabbed his head to press his ear against the door, emphasizing to him to _listen_. The meister flinched as his weapon kept him at bay, his ear twitching and forehead crinkling from detection of the sounds behind it. His wonder faded as sharp noises and heavy breathing were made behind the door, the strange creaking of bed springs like someone was jumping on it, breathless demands for something faster and-

A loud shriek left Crona as he recognized the reason for such noises, darting away from the door like his ear had touched an open flame. He fell to the floor and scrambled to the closest corner of the hallway to ease himself. Ragnorak guffawed while pulling his meister's ear, feeding his meister his daily diet of harsh words of how much of a coward he was.

And like the previous feedings, Crona didn't resist, because he knew Ragnorak was right. He was a coward, and he feared this place now more than ever. Uncertainty flooded him on just what in the world this place _was_. Was this some new form of punishment upon him?

Whimpering, Crona stood up from his spot, his head pulsing from mental strain. He couldn't deal with this place anymore, couldn't handle the odd smells, sounds, and sights. He just wanted to run and seek out the one source in the world that could help him reach mental serenity.

As his eager feet walked to reach the corridor's exit, Crona stopped in his tracks. The skin between his brows merged as he noticed the brunette in the bunny outfit from earlier stand in the middle of the exit, hands on her hips, and a strange smile on her lips.

Crona stared at the girl oddly, his eyes darting back and forth, muttering, "Uhm…excuse me?"

The bunny girl's head tilted up, her eyebrow slowly rising. "Yes?"

His fingers fumbled together as they stared, the new song playing making his insides quiver and heart palpitate with the beat. From her firm stance, the girl didn't seem inclined to move, so it may be best to not say anything. Crona settled for apologizing instead of interacting and turned to take the other exit in the hallway.

A heart attack felt to dawn on Crona as he saw the other exit was blocked by the girl in a tight devil outfit.

"I guess I just wouldn't believe it until I see it again." The bunny-dressed girl said, smiling widely. "It really _is_ the Demon Swordsman. And to think I thought it was just another weird creeper."

"Told you."The devil girl pouted, approaching slowly. "But I guess this outfit proves it really is a he."Crona shivered with concern as hazy eyes went up and down him like an elevator. "A pretty cute he."

"We don't know that for sure." The bunny-girl stated. "Both girls and boys dress up as rockstars." Crona's cerulean depths shook as the girl smiled wider, speaking in a sultry tone, "But maybe if _'he'_ is up for it, he'll let us find the prize in his pants to prove what he is."

Crona shook as the girls giggled drunkenly. He looked down to examine his image, searching to find what they were talking about.

Yes, he looked different than he usually looked. But why were his pants such a big deal?

Feeling his overwhelmed brain begin to short-circuit from strain, Crona pushed forward to delay his breakdown, asking, "P-Pardon me, but can I p-please get through? I-…I need to be somewhere."

The black-haired devil lifted her eyebrows while the other tapped a painted nail to her chin, still standing in his path to freedom."I don't know. I'd have to take two full steps to the side to do that. It seems like a lot of work…" She then stuck out her hand, an insinuating eyebrow raising. "How about you pay the toll to clear the way, and I'll step aside."

Slender pink brows furrowed in confusion. "Toll?"

"Or maybe, you really _do_ have the key to opening up the pathway."The devil girl smirked. "At least, if you know where it is, and where to put it."

Crona wriggled uncomfortably from the advancing girl's laughter, his limbs twitching and jerking like ants were crawling over his body.

What are they _talking_ about?

Catching onto his blank stares, the bunny girl said while winking, "Just think of the key as your 'Demon Sword', tough guy."

…that didn't help Crona's confusion at all. What did Ragnorak have to do with any of this?

Said demon snickered within him, commenting through the resonating channel within them, "_Now I'm fucking impressed, Crona. You weren't even _trying_ and you already reeled the chicks in!"_

"_What are you talking about? What is even going _on_?"_

The sword just snickered again._"Looks like you're about to become a man younger than I thought."_

_"__Wha-"_

Before he could finish, the bunny girl drifted far too close to Crona for comfort, almost feeling her breath on his face as she spoke, "Or if you need some guidance, we can help you find it."

By sheer instinct, Crona launched himself into a nearby corner, the girls following not far behind. His teeth chattered as he saw his usual method of comfort was working against him, trapping him as the girls kept saying they'd help him find Ragnorak.

Why did they want to find Ragnorak so badly? Did they like it when he cheered them on? Or did they want to dig his weapon out of him to punish him?

Concerned blue eyes shrank to pinpoints at that thought. He most certainly could _not_ deal with that!

The questions battering his brain and approaching lips of the girls were pushing the fine line of Crona's sanity. The only thing that could help him not fall under the advancing shadows of turmoil…was to run. Run _now_.

He cried out and ducked when two pairs of lips launched at him, messily slithering past the space between the girls to run through the hallway's opening to salvation.

Crona didn't care how weird he looked when he jumped off the second story to clumsily land on the first. He ignored the odd faces and murmurs toward him and turned his head to find the two girls traveling down the stairs. He panicked and used his fear of them as fuel to plunge back into the large crowd of bodies again.

As he maneuvered and dodged through the waves of moving people, ignoring the sultry calls of his demonic title, Crona crouched down to mold himself into the crowd, camouflaging his body. When he looked back, he hoped some sliver of luck would be on his side to not be noticed by the frightening women.

That may have been the case, as soon the calls were swallowed under the superior noise of the party, and for a minute, a breath of relief left him at the thought of finally being free.

But it was a repeating cycle that his luck would run out quickly, possibly used to further humiliate him as he ran into the legs of a person in the crowd, both crying out as they tumbled down to the ground.

A pulsing ache rushed through Crona's brain as he slowly sat up from his body cushion, apologizing while nursing his throbbing head.

Then another call sang through his ears, its tune airy and sweet as it played out, "Crona?"

His racing heart stopped. The swordsman looked down to find a startled Maka resting on her front on the ground below him, her eyes wide.

"M-Maka!" He said. He unsteadily got up and lifted Maka from her spot on the ground, both their eyes shining with relief to see the other. "Are you alright? I didn't hurt you, d-did I?"

"No, don't be silly." Maka smiled, waving him off. "I'm fine." Her welcoming eyes twinkled with curiosity, moving around to examine him. "But Crona, are you alright? Why are you out of breath? And where are your costume props?"

"I'm doing a-alright." Crona responded, purposefully avoiding her other questions. To save her worry, he felt a tiny lie was in order. "I-I was just happy to see you come in, s-so I ran from the second story to see you."

Maka's forehead scrunched in surprise. "Hold on…was that you who jumped off the second story?"

Crona cringed. "Uhm, y-yes, but…" He looked into her eyes, seeing they were filled with the concern he tried to avoid. "But I-I'm okay! It doesn't hurt when I fall off things. Ragnorak helps with that." His eyes joined her in curiosity, and he found himself wanting to ask his own questions. "But what are you doing here, Maka? H-How did you find me?"

Maka placed her hands on her hips, a knowing eyebrow rising. "Even the bookworms know when someone's hosting a big party they're not invited to. This party has been the biggest talk around school for the past month. I figured those idiots would drag you here."

"And like the fun-sucker you are, you manage to ruin parties too!" Ragnorak bellowed. A long string of black lifted out of the startled Crona, his solidifying face sporting a scowl. "Because this idiot was on a freaking mission to get back to you, he tapped out on a chance to play slip and slide with two hot chicks!"

There it was…those weird terms again. Like he hadn't had enough of those for one night.

Crona begged Ragnorak to stop his rants, but his comment had done enough to spark interest, as Maka's slowly hardening face didn't seem as excited as him to see this topic end.

"Ragnorak, what are you talking about?" Maka asked. Her tone had a familiar demand to it, but it was darker than usual. Almost too sinister to belong to her.

A shiver traveled up Crona's spine from such an unfamiliar tone. "M-Maka it's nothing. He's just-"

"Because of you pushing your goody-two shoes manners on Crona, this moron didn't take the chance to bed two girls that were all over him! They even trapped him in a damn corner and he _still_ ran off! So technically, even if you weren't here, you're the reason why Crona didn't get laid tonight!"

Those stupid _terms_…

"Ragnorak, I-I said that's enough!" Crona ordered. He launched a hand up to grab his weapon, but the weapon fought back against his snatchings.

While the meister and weapon pair struggled, Maka stared in frozen shock at Ragnorak, responding with multiple blinks and her mouth dropping low enough to leave a small opening.

Crona stared as her mouth snapped shut, her tongue rolling over teeth behind lips, and jaw moving side to side. "Crona?"She flatly asked. He froze when scornful eyes not meant for him moved to meet his. "Where are these girls now?"

A squeaky whimper shook his throat as firm green eyes drilled into his, "Maka… " He started. "I-It's not important. They didn't do anything. So…"

_"__No."_ Maka said sternly. "I know people like that come out during this holiday, and I know how pushy they can be. Whatever they were doing to you, you didn't want it, and they should have respected that." She planted two firm fingers into his shoulder, her voice losing some of its fire as she asked again, "Who was it?"

For the first time since his mind was drowned in the Madness, Crona shivered from Maka's gaze into him. Fear invaded him, but compliance to his best friend was stronger than his resistance. His head turned from a stern Maka to filter the heads of the crowd, searching for the costumed girls who tried to trap him.

But no matter how much he tried, there were simply too many different colored heads and costumes to make out anyone's position. Looking for two people in such an occupied place would be impossible…so he gave up.

"M-Maka…"Crona quietly started, lowering his head. "R-Really. I'm okay. Nothing happened." He thought back to the pranks Soul and Black Star wanted to do, thinking that was a possibility. "Maybe they were just playing a prank on me, right? M-Maybe what they were trying to do was their way of having fun?"

Ragnorak let out a sharp laugh and Maka's eyes narrowed. Crona's heart sank that his attempt at relief didn't ease her, the pain extending as she replied in a low tone, "Yeah, I bet they were having _loads _of fun with you."

Crona gulped while his costumed friend retrieved her eyes from him, exhaling. She ran a hand through her hair as she closed her eyes. After a couple moments, a softer gaze presented itself to Crona as her eyes opened, saying, "Okay. If those girls are not important, then let's find someone who is." Her head looked out to the crowd, eyes darting around. "Where did Soul and Black Star go? The ones who I _know_ brought you here."

Crona's lungs felt to crushingly sandwich his heart, making his breath come to him in short breaths.

"Crona," Maka said, her tone turning softer. "You're not the one in trouble here. They are. There's no need to be scared to tell me."

Then why did he feel like his confession would end up betraying people who attempted to make him happy? That felt like enough reason to fear.

The swordsman struggled to comply, mentally at war to tell his best friend, or sell out others who did as she attempted and tried to take him somewhere to have fun.

But he must have been uncharacteristically lucky tonight, as it seemed to return to him when a familiar shouting of "Ya-hoo!" and outcries of "Dude!" caught Maka's attention.

Crona lifted his head to find Black Star on top of a table, lifting up his gown to reveal his bare derriere, yelling there was a "full-moon" toward a disgusted and turning away Soul, yelling at him to spare him off the sight.

Anger radiated off Maka as she spotted them, her head lowering and eyes blazing like a bull about to charge. Her threatening aura emanated off her as she stomped forward, steaming from her pores so ferociously that the sea of people formed a path for her pass through, not wanting the storm of scolding to strike them too.

The sword meister wrenched his eyes shut as shrieks of awareness were heard, feeling that this place may have truly been hell. As screams and howls so pained could only come from souls who endured torture for their wrongdoings. The sounds were so daunting, that even Ragnorak fled back within him, saying "I'm getting the fuck out now while I can".

His eyes snapped open when a marching Maka took him by the arm and guided him out the dormitories' door. Crona turned his head to view the damage done, feeling his spine ice over toward the bloodied forms of Soul and Black Star deeply cratered into the wall and ground, each an example of those who dared cross Maka Albarn.

Only now did Crona understand why Ragnorak used the term "poor bastards".

* * *

><p>Maka and Crona quickly traveled through the park, both aiming to get as far away from the party as possible. The leader finally stopped on an arched bridge over the park's pond to pull out a portable mirror in her pocket, calling Kid to call off the search, that she found Crona.<p>

After telling her friends to do whatever they wanted for the remainder of the night and tucked her mirror back in her gown, Maka turned to the water below the bridge, staring at her own angry reflection.

Every time. It seemed that every time Maka even _attempted_ to make something more pleasant for Crona, her efforts would explode right back in his and her face.

First it was the residents screaming and slamming doors in his face, then it was losing him in a large crowd and finding out Black Star and Soul were also missing,_ then_ it was hearing that he was almost jumped on by two intoxicated and promiscuous girls.

The constant explosion of messes made Maka want to yell out in seething fury, but she kept her rage caged away until she had her bedroom pillow that was large enough to absorb her frustration.

"I'm sorry," Maka muttered solemnly. She took her gaze away from the pond to peer at Crona. "I'm really sorry this night has been nothing but a big mess. I really am. I just…" Maka struggled to keep her inner anger and remorse buried, choking it back. "I just wanted you to enjoy your first Halloween."

Crona kept his head bowed, his face appearing almost as grieved as her. "It's not your fault." He said. "I should have been more careful. I r-remember Black Star mentioning a party the other day…so I-I should have been more wary about this."

It was typical. Of course he would direct the blame back on himself.

"No." Maka denied. "Even if Black Star is too much of an idiot to notice discomfort, Soul should have known better than to take you to such a place. The blame is solely on them."

"B-But…I followed them there. Doesn't that mean I'm to blame too?"

"Let me guess, you were dragged by Black Star while that happened?"

Crona opened his mouth to speak, but slowly began to close it. He glanced away and nodded.

Maka closed her eyes, sighing. "Thought so. Being dragged by a friend whose pushing you to go is not the same as going willingly, Crona"

She placed a hand to her forehead, the image of an infuriatingly cocksure meister hovering over her brain. Maka hoped her punishment had been enough on him, because it most certainly didn't feel like enough to her_._

Spreading her fingers out over her face, Maka looked through the cracks to look at Crona. Her brows knitted together when her eyes detected a wet black mark on his cheek.

Was that…lipstick?

Maka's eyelid quivered, a weighty flood of venom filling her chest. Her anger and relief blocked her from seeing it before, but now she saw a possible infliction onto him from one of those girls Ragnorak had mentioned, one that tried to sink her dirty claws into Crona.

Her hands balled into tight fists, anger and fury burning hotter that someone even _tried_ to hook their filth into a sweet and pure boy that was her dear friend. Such women didn't deserve such a genuinely kind person. In fact, no one she knew did; Crona was much too special for anybody.

She tightened her jaw and carefully breathed out to vent her anger . Maka's eyes moved to meet Crona's, saying, "Crona? You've um…you've got something on your cheek."

Crona gave her a confused look. His hand raised to the wrong cheek, and she shook her head, saying it was the other one. When his hand came away with black wax on said cheek, he stared at it in blushing bafflement. He quickly tried to rub it off, but that only made the smearing worse.

"Here," Maka offered. She licked her thumb, and brought it to his red-tinted face. "I've got it."

Her thumb swiped away the slick wax on Crona's cheek, rotating it around in firm circles. An unconscious smile formed on her lips when he cutely flinched, and she soon found herself hypnotized by him as she rubbed the lipstick off.

When her deed was done, her thumb lost its firm force, softly lingering on his porcelain cheek to slowly glide down his face. The fluttering sensation flapped inside her gut again, the fingers resting against him feeling how soft his blushing, sheltered skin was.

How truly untouched and pure it was…

Warmth invaded her cheeks when she noticed Crona's stare, puzzled why her thumb was staying on his face. Hoping to play it off, Maka settled for gliding her hand down to rest it on his shoulder, asking again, "Are you sure you're alright? It's okay if you aren't."

Crona kept his red face down, messing with the edges of his jacket. "Y-Yes. I feel m-much better now."

Maka withdrew her hand and swallowed hard, hoping to press down the storm of newly hatched butterflies flying inside her stomach. Her attention diverted to the black material staining her fingers, and a shiver shook her body.

"Enjoying those kinds of parties must be something else I can't understand." Maka said. "Or maybe it's an acquired taste of a pastime. Black Star and Soul have to be the only ones I know that can like being in a place with so many people cramped in one space." The bridge of Maka's nose wrinkled as she thought of another constant partier. "Well, them and Spirit."

Crona tilted his head to the side, holding his arm tightly. "I thought your father was passing out candy like the other parents, not going to parties. H-He looks too mature to be at a party with a bunch of teenagers, o-or doing what I saw them doing."

Maka smiled at an innocent boy who didn't know the filthy habits of her father, or common pastimes of adults. "That's sweet of you to give him so much credit, but that's not the case when it comes to him. With women dressing like sexy seductresses on a night they can get away with it, Spirit probably thinks Halloween is like an early Christmas. That's probably why he hosts his own Halloween party for adults every year." Her nose twitched again and a vein throbbed in her temple. "And it's why he invites only women to it, too."

Crona shrunk back into his shell, defeated in his defense, and Maka apologized to him again. He didn't know any better, and he most certainly didn't know Spirit. She could understand.

The pair stood in silence on the bridge as they gathered themselves. Maka swiped hair behind her ear as she inspected her surroundings.

There had to something in this city, _anything _that could help Crona forget the scarring experiences of that party. Someplace where his mind could writhe in happy sceneries rather than confusing scenes of lust and partying. She had shown him there were brighter sides to Halloween with the parade, so surely there had to be more.

Maka glanced along the tops of the trees and saw a large Ferris wheel rotating nearby, flashing rides twirling and musical tunes chiming.

The idea she searched for came to mind, and she looked back to her nervous friend.

"Crona," She began, leaning away from the arched balustrade of the bridge. "I have one more idea that may help turn this night around, but only if you're willing to see it. I know tonight has been a lot for you to process, so I won't push you in what you want to do." A dark eye peeked out of the drape of uneven bangs as Maka extended her hand. "And if you want to go, all you have to do is take my hand. If you don't, I'll understand, and I'll take you back home. Okay?" She smiled at him. "What do you say?"

Crona slowly straightened his back as his eyes drifted to her hand, inspecting it. Maka remained still and quiet, knowing a mental rampage may be ravaging his brain. That was easy to understand, as she would also be reluctant to take the hand of another friend who helped make his Halloween unpleasant.

But Maka was pleasantly surprised when the shy boy's long, slender fingers reached out to intertwine with hers, their palms softly touching as their hands clasped together.

Her smile beamed brighter at his acceptance, and a tiny smile from him was rewarded to her.

Not bothering to say more words, Maka gently tugged on Crona's hand, leading him into the brightly lit streets.

* * *

><p>Crona knew people celebrated many different occasions, whether it was someone's birthday, or like that day Professor Stein and Marie got married. But he was nervous about this type of celebration gathering, not just because of his recent escape from a startling party, but because the Halloween carnival Maka was leading him into had many people and peculiar activities.<p>

He kept close to her as they walked through the loud carnival, watching costumed children scream while running. The kids and other bystander's smiles were large as they held caramel apples that looked like carved pumpkins, or the orange jack-o-lantern buckets used to stuff with treats after visiting game booths.

The game stations people flocked to had interesting attractions, but Crona found people plunging their heads into ice water to snap at floating apples was a little starting. He also didn't feel too inclined to try the tossing of rings onto a witch hat peg like the station's promoter wanted him to.

Maka must have known that, as she kindly waved off those promoters and watched the animated players with him instead of participating. She used the same tactic on the fast rides around them, settling for giggling at exiting people who twirled in circles or stumbled over their feet rather than board them together.

To him, it was like she just wanted him to observe again. To see the smile-inducing joys of this holiday, not the funny behavior and funky smells that occurred behind closed doors. Like Maka had told him, everyone liked different things, and partying or trick or treating was an acquired taste to certain people.

That taste of liking those kinds of parties was something he may have lacked, as he felt much more at ease by being away from it, calmer just by being beside Maka as they walked with their hands held tightly together.

And as Crona traveled with her through the carnival, he wondered how much longer this sweet dream would last.

"Oh my _goodness_! Your costume is so cute, Maka!"

The pair's heads shot to the side from the comment, their eyes going wide as they found their smiling teacher wearing a ponytail behind metal bars, her clothes consisting of black shorts and a long tank top.

"Professor Marie!" Maka called. Through their clasped hands, Maka guided Crona towards the booth their teacher sat in.

Her caramel eyes went large as they approached, looking to Maka's pink-haired companion. "Why, Crona! Look at you! You look absolutely _adorable_!"Crona stared in blushing bafflement as Marie clapped her hands together, eyes sparkling with motherly awe. "Just look at you in your cute little jacket and chain _pants_! It suits you so well! Did you choose that all by yourself? Why didn't you tell me you were dressing up?"

"He had some help." Maka responded. "He didn't have an outfit when he came over, so he borrowed Soul's spare rock-star costume in his closet." She looked to Crona, her grin pulling wider. "He pulls off a hard rocker pretty well, don't you think?"

Marie's smile extended. "In all the years I've been alive, I've never seen a rocker cuter than him."

Crona groaned at the compliments, hearing Ragnorak moan within him "_Oh brother_". He bowed his flushed face, his cheeks growing hotter as the girls giggled at his shyness.

"But what are you doing here, Professor?" Maka inquired. "I thought you said you were passing out candy tonight."

"I volunteered."Marie replied. She leaned forward on her bare knees, shifting on an awfully flimsy plastic seat. "I wanted to do something different, so I put Stein in charge of passing out candy this year."

"…are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Maka, he might give the kids a good scare, but I doubt he'll pass out real eyeballs or organs to them."

"Are you sure about that?"

"…I-I'm pretty sure."

"Positive?"

"Maka…"

"Alright, alright." Maka laughed. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist."

Marie smiled while shrugging, and leaned back in her chair. "Well, what are you kids waiting for? Are you going to stand there? Or are you going to play the dunking game?"

Crona inched his head to the side, blinking as teeth peeked out from Maka's smile.

"Dunking game?" He questioned.

"You take three balls after paying the ticket fee from the table over there, and attempt to take revenge on your teacher as you aim for the small target." Marie joked. She laughed lightly, a sweet smile advancing farther. "I can't even count how many students have passed by here and made it their mission to make me fall. Just look at me, I'm completely soaked!"

"I guess you're going to add two more students to that soak count then."Maka grinned. She walked over to the man behind the booth and handed him the ticket fee. She came back to Crona and offered one of the balls to him, asking, "Do you want to have the honors of the first throw?"

Crona's chest muscles constricted. He moved his gaze to settle on his strangely happy teacher, directing it back to the ground as he brought his arms to his chest, "I-I don't know. I thought throwing things at people w-was a bad thing."

"Not at this booth!" Marie assured. "We welcome it!"

"It's all a part of the game." Maka added. "We won't even be aiming for the professor, and for the idiots who try, that's what the metal bars in front of her are for." She pointed her hand out to the small target beside the tank. "That's what we'll be aiming for."

The swordsman's eyes shot from the balls to the target, processing their claims.

"Gah, just _do_ something already!" Ragnorak roared, erupting from his meister's back. He grabbed his meister's cheeks to stretch them around. "Come on, you big pansy. When is the next time you'll be able to dunk a teacher? This is our big chance!" He leaned in closer to Crona, quietly cackling, "Plus, we just might be able to get a better look at her chest if we get that shirt wet. Just imagine the view. Her melons are _much_ better than Bossy Pant's mosquito bites."

_That_ comment struck an unsuspecting nerve from Crona. His hand shot up to slam under Ragnorak's jaw. He grabbed his weapon, focused ebon fixed on him, quietly hissing, "Don't talk about Professor Marie _or_ Maka that way. You hear me? Not _ever_._"_

Ragnorak stared at him, x-marked eyes staring into his determined ones. A snort left the amused weapon as he shrugged, obviously not caring how he insulted such a motherly woman and his caring friend.

Crona apologized to the pondering women, and noticed that Maka had withdrawn her extended hand from him.

"Here, I'll start first."She said. "Hold the other two for me?"

Crona complied and took the spare balls from Maka, watching as she readied herself.

Like a professional baseball pitcher prepares themselves to throw, Maka did the same. She whirred her arm around to warm up her muscles and lifted her leg to twist her body and throw.

And as Crona watched her display her skills, he was surprised to find that Maka's superior physical abilities…did not extend into the sport world. The ball didn't even hit the target, it just…missed it completely.

The astonished Crona almost blushed with her as red rose in her cheeks, moving her head away to hide her face, muttering, "I uh…I guess I need to work on my fastball more than I thought."

"No kidding." Ragnorak remarked. "How fast did that go? Negative fifty miles per hour?"

_"__Shut up."_

Maka resigned her scowl from Ragnorak to curve a gentle smile at Crona. "You want to give it a try now?"

Feeling uncertain, Crona looked to the objects held in his hands. He looked to Marie again and the warm, maternal smile she often gave him revealed itself. "Don't worry about dropping me. It's all a part of the booth." She promised. "Trust me, if I didn't want to be dropped in a bucket full of water, then I wouldn't have volunteered."

An insecure smile shook Crona's lips from Maka and his professor's accepting gazes. Gathering his resolve, he lifted one of the balls held in his hands, and did his best to follow Maka's form to throw, lifting up a leg, and turning his hips to aide his tossing's direction.

And as the ball completely missed his target…Crona found he's not much better at pitching than her.

"Wow, you guys fucking _suck_."Ragnorak criticized.

"I said, _shut up_."Maka snapped. Her stern eyes aimed at Ragnorak warmed when shifting back to Crona. "The last one is all yours, Crona. You're the one with more potential here. I bet you can make it."

"One more strike and you're out~" Marie sing-songed. Her feet moved back and forth on the chair, fingers moving to her lips in faux astonishment. "Can it be that two of my best students can't hit something so simple as a target?" Small tsks left her. "And just what would my poor prideful husband say about this?"

Maka raised an amused eyebrow to pair with her corner smirk. "She seems to be acting pretty high and mighty, don't you think?" Her smirk upturned higher. "We have the advantage, Crona. There's not much she can do inside a box. Want to show her what a couple of the best meisters at the academy can do?"

Crona stared raptly at Maka's confident grin. Slowly, he regained his resolve and warmed up to throw again, straightening himself, and mentally aiming for his target.

Just as his hips turned to initiate a throw, Crona felt the ball shoot up out of his hands, a loud "_Nope_!" ringing in his ears.

Maka and Crona looked up to see Ragnorak bring his arm back, the ball in his hands, yelling, "There's no way in _hell _I'm missing this chance because of you talentless assholes! It's _my_ turn!"

The demon swung his arm and the zooming ball struck the small target nearby the tank. Marie squealed as her seat fell underneath her, dropping her into the water residing beneath her with a loud _SPLASH_.

Crona turned his head to strike Ragnorak again, but stopped when Maka let out her mesmerizing laugh. The rising Marie from the rippling water soon joined her, laughing breathlessly while combing back wet strands of hair, emphasizing how the chilly desert night may have helped the water become colder than she remembered.

Subtle shock struck Crona that neither of the girls were angry at the re-submerging Ragnorak. Instead, they laughed heartily from the professor's dunking, Maka wiping her eyes and Marie climbing back up on the chair with a large smile.

"Say," Marie began. She wiped the water off her face with a hand." Where is everyone else? I thought you kids were going trick-or-treating together tonight."

"Everyone got tired after awhile." Maka replied. From her side-glance, Crona could tell she didn't want Professor Marie to know specifics about what happened earlier. "So Crona and I took the chance to come here."Her eyes met his and a smile lit up her face. "Since he's never been to a carnival and all."

Crona flushed and Marie lifted a blonde brow. "So, you two are alone?"

"Yup! I thought I might show him around a place that's filled with the Halloween spirit. It's something that can't be missed." Awareness glimmered in her green eyes as she looked off in the distance, moving her head back to their teacher. "And I actually have one more thing to show him. "She grabbed Crona's hand and began to walk away. "It was nice seeing you, Professor! Happy Halloween!"

She waved and their teacher wished the same back, her smile broad. Crona turned to say his own goodbye to his teacher, and saw she was giving him a warm smile. She gave him two thumbs up and a wink before turning her attention to other drifters toward her booth.

What was that all about?

From another tug on his hand, Crona was pulled out of his thoughts when Maka steered him into a line to a Ferris Wheel. The hand clasped against hers quickly became sweaty as they are led into one of the carriages, but he felt instead of her drawing away from his moist hand, she held him tighter. He wished he could look at her peaceful face so it would pair her touch, but he couldn't deal with keeping his eyes open. Just the thought of doing so as their carriage ascended made a sickly feeling bubble in his stomach. He jolted when the ride stopped, but a portion of his tension melted when Maka swiped her thumb over his knuckles, assuring him this sort of thing is supposed to happen.

"Please, Crona." Maka softly implored. "Please open your eyes. I promise you'll be okay. You don't need to be afraid."

The last of his resistance faded from her gentle request, the muscles in his eyes loosening and allowing him to slowly peek an eye open. As the lid lifted, he couldn't help but have the other quickly follow in suit.

A birds-eye view of Death City sat before them, mazes of city blocks resting below with ant people running and walking through them. Orange and yellow lights blended together as lights from decorated houses and normal residences merged into one. A blanket of diamond-like specks rested above them, littering the sky until it touched the mountainous horizon.

"I know you've seen the city during the day," Maka began. "But I wanted to show you what it looks during the night. How much more lively and bright it is on a holiday like this. " The smile on her face turned softer, like she was falling back into a memory. "Ever since I was small, this ride has been my favorite. I'm not sure why, but it just is. Being up here…it makes me feel like even if I can't achieve what I want, if I can't make Soul into a better Death Scythe than Papa, I can still be on top of the world here. I can feel like a champion when I'm high in the sky like this, even if it's only temporary." She paused and giggled to herself after a moment. "But now that I think about it, I guess that's just some little kid's weird fantasy, isn't it?"

Crona couldn't find his voice, so he settled for shaking his head and kept his transfixed eyes on the tender smile Maka delivered to him.

She pried her attention away from the intricate design of Death City to peer at the sand dunes in the distance, the light of the city shining on their faces. "Even if it's dark, the city's lights are so bright you can see the greener parts of desert from here. From the ground it looks like nothing but sand and mountains, but up here you can see the palm trees and long grass, even the oases from far away."She moved to place her arm on the metal bar built to stop them from leaning out too far, her chin resting atop her forearm. "It's amazing how even a sandy wasteland can bear so much life, don't you think? That even though there's barely any water here and the atmosphere is so rough, things can still survive."

Crona's throat closed at that, his breath dissolving from his lungs. He stared at the view while his mind delved back into the memory of his own soul, how once it was as course and grainy as the dry dunes around him; a desolate wasteland with no life, no flecks of green or streams of blue to decorate its surface.

Such a state must have been how the desert was around him once, that only until nurturing water passed through its territory was it finally able to feed new life, to give something the opportunity to grow.

It must have been how it was…because that's how it was for Crona's sandy plains. He knew for certain that if the goddess costumed girl sitting on her rightful seat in the sky didn't pass through his territory, if she never held him and acknowledged his existence…there would be no cleansing water to wash away his restrictive lines in the sand; he would not have grown and sprouted into his own person had that water not been there to feed him.

A stifled hiccup shook Crona's throat, his face burning, a stinging pressure building behind his eyes. It took all his will to not make a sound, to use his habits of locking away the urge to cry…only this time it's not tears of sadness he's trying to hide.

"Crona?"

His head shot up at the call of his name, and stared at a puzzled Maka. By the harder clenching of her hand around his, she must have noticed he had started to shake. "Are you okay?"

Crona blinked away the liquid happiness threatening to spill over, breathing deeply. "I-I'm fine. It's just…"He took his merged hand away from her to rub his arms in comfort, and quickly found he could use his habit to his advantage. "It's j-just been getting colder. That's all."

The worry in Maka's eyes waned a little, and she joined him in holding her own arms, replying, "Now that you mention it, it has gotten pretty cold lately. The weather always does turn glacial during the nighttime."

Crona inspected her, seeing her gowned body lightly tremble and thought the flimsy material of such a costume couldn't offer much protection against the cold like his did. Quickly, he took off his jacket, leaving himself in the undershirt to wear under his costume, and placed it over Maka's shoulders, saying she could have it.

She looked at the jacket in shock, then drifted her eyes back up to him. "But didn't you just say you were cold?"

Red flooded Crona's face, and he aimed his eyes away from her. "Y-Yes, but…I don't mind it too much. I can deal with it."

Maka eyebrow rose. "You must have minded if you complained about it. You hardly ever complain."

The swordsman responded by keeping his face away, hoping keeping quiet would be a better answer than say anything else that could be used against him.

While keeping his head turned, Crona flinched when the jacket draped over his shoulders, an unfamiliar warmth building below his neck. His eyes enlarged as he looked down, seeing Maka's head and side of her body rest against him, binding them closer with the jacket and her slim arms that wrapped around his waist. His blush turned fire truck red as he breathlessly asked, "M-Maka…?"

"I know you're not going to back down from me having your jacket, just like I'm not on you having it back."Maka candidly replied." So I can settle with sharing it. I don't mind." She moved her head so her chin settled on his shoulder, hypnotizing green starting into his. "Do you?"

It was almost scary how she could render him speechless, as he was only able shake his head rather than give a verbal response.

She smiled and a shiver ran through Crona as her lips accidently brushed against the side of his neck when settling back against him. His body heat soared as their carriage remained parked in the sky, watching the city gleam under the light of the grinning moon and its own incandescence. And not for the first time that night, Crona's mind steadily drifted back to the party.

He remembered seeing softer couples that were like this, that instead of acting like wild animals fighting for dominance, they would lounge against the other comfortably, their touches and kisses gentle. The building fire behind his skin felt to steam out his ears at the memory of those soft exchanges of lips, shame adding to his blush as his mind wrongfully replaced the faces of those couples with his and Maka's own.

Heat rushed fiercer through him as Maka brought herself closer from chilly gust of wind, and wrapped the jacket around them tighter. Crona's skin itched and tingled, like a bug crawling under his skin that was searching for greater touch from her, the images of close-contacted bodies from earlier in the night not helping his resistance. He finally caved when a soft, content sigh left Maka, the sound loosening his neck muscles from staying straight and stiff, to eased and relaxed. Crona closed his eyes and focused on the touch he was fortunate to have, only allowing his chin to gently settle on her head, and a shaky hand to rest on her waist.

With their close contact and Maka's arms holding him tighter, memories of the two girls and party scene began to wash away from him, like gritty sand beneath soothing waves. For once tonight, Crona finally thought for certain he was at peace and was enjoying this holiday. That through following Maka after seeing the believable truth expressed in her eyes when she extended her hand, she managed to make this a memorable night.

And as they sat there underneath the grinning moon's gaze, Crona couldn't help but be forever grateful that the cheerful light of day once again came to save the grieving night.

* * *

><p><strong>This Ferris wheel scene was inspired by the song "If I Never Knew You"-by Jon Secada and Shanice. If you're a nineties kid or lived during the nineties and watched Pocahontas, then maybe your nostalgia feels will be touched by this song like mine werexD <strong>

**I hope you'll tell me what you enjoyed in this series or what I can fix, and thank you for reading!**

**Aaaaaaand, back to main story!**


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